Vaccinations Save Lives

While going through some old family papers years ago, I discovered a receipt for payment to a stone carver in southeastern Ohio for five gravestones. With horror, I realized that these were for the graves of five children ages 1 to 14, who died, probably of diphtheria, in two weeks in November of 1859. More recently, my sister discovered the country graveyard with these five graves in a row and took us for a somber visit.

 The thought of watching five children essentially suffocating to death from this ghastly disease is truly horrifying. How did their parents go on after this? I guess they just had no other choice. One of the surviving children in this unfortunate family was a little girl who would become my grandfather’s grandmother.

The loss of one child is tragic but the loss of several children was a reality for many families before the huge improvement in disease prevention in the 20^th century. Although the spread of disease was always (and still is) worse among children living in poor and crowded conditions, even well-off families could lose a child to diphtheria, typhoid, whooping cough, or yes, even measles.

I’ve heard it said that one reason for vaccine-hesitancy among some young parents these days may be that younger people have no memory of how grim life could be back in the old days. Growing up in the 1950s we heard stories from our grandparents about their little brothers or sisters dying in the late 1800s or at the turn of the 20^th century. Those grandparents have been long gone for many years, along with their sad memories.

The major health discovery for children’s health in the 1950s was the polio vaccine. As I recall, it was distributed first as a shot, with boosters coming in the form of a sugar cube (a big improvement, we kids thought). I recall long lines at the armory in our town where we all lined up for the vaccine. Even if we didn’t know anyone with polio, we had all seen the photos of children wearing leg braces and even worse, others confined to an iron lung. Parents welcomed the new vaccine with huge relief.

The measles vaccine didn’t come along until the 1960s after I’d had the measles. I had a bad year when I was seven, with mumps in the fall, and in January a tonsillectomy, and then measles in the early summer. Like most kids at that time, I came though OK, though I remember feeling miserable (it was a long time ago now). But even though most children get through what we call childhood diseases OK, it is by no means certain, and the illness can sometimes result in dire complications, even death.

Measles is the most highly contagious virus out there, which is why the medical profession supports vaccination as the best way to keep an epidemic at bay. If someone with measles is out mingling with others who have no resistance to it, those other people are sure to catch it too.

Well, I’m not a doctor and I don’t believe you should take medical advice from someone who is not a doctor or other medical professional. Nor should such a person be giving out unproved medical advice in the first place. The web and social media have a lot to answer for.

 Here’s an interesting new book, available at the library, from one of those doctors who is also an excellent writer (where do they find the time?).  It is called “Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health” by Adam Ratner, MD, MPH. Dr. Ratner is a pediatrician in New York City and over his career he has cared for thousands of sick children. He knows what he is talking about. He is also very sympathetic to children and their parents.

Dr. Ratner relates personal stories from his own family and of his young patients, along with the history of vaccine development from its earliest days as “variolation” to prevent smallpox until the time when smallpox was actually declared eliminated (a massive milestone in public health). He likes to say, “Vaccines don’t save lives. Vaccinations save lives.”

One reviewer called Dr. Ratner’s new book “at once a history of measles, a story of vaccine development and a guide for approaching vaccine-hesitant parents who only want what’s best for their vulnerable children—in short, an immensely valuable read.”