28 things your doctor wishes you knew about vaccines

The CDC and the FDA warn that anyone who is severely allergic to vaccines should skip immunisation. However, if you have an egg allergy, it’s still recommended that you get a flu shot, according to the CDC. There are also groups of people who should avoid live vaccines. “If it’s a live vaccine and you’re immunocompromised, you should not get the vaccine,” says Dr Kuhn. “Most live viruses are not advocated for women who are pregnant.” Examples of live vaccines are measles/mumps/rubella (MMR), smallpox and chickenpox. Fortunately, most vaccine reactions are mild, such as redness around the injection site. Only rarely do you see serious reactions.

Illnesses that cause vomiting and diarrhoea are often referred to as the “stomach flu,” but this is a misconception, according to the CDC. Any number of bacteria, parasites and even viruses can cause severe GI symptoms, but rarely the influenza virus. The flu is a respiratory illness so the primary flu symptoms are fever, chills, aches, fatigue, sore throat, and runny nose. The so-called stomach flu is actually called gastroenteritis. The most common causes are norovirus (infamous on cruise ships) and rotavirus. They are also notoriously easy to pick up and they spread rapidly in close quarters. (There is no vaccine for norovirus, although there is a rotavirus vaccine for infants.)

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Regardless of age, almost everyone needs vaccines – and that includes adults, says the CDC. Some childhood vaccines can wear off; also, adults who might be exposed to new viruses via foreign travel are strongly advised to get vaccinated. Although international travel is off the agenda during the Covid-19 pandemic, when you do decide to travel again, seek your doctor’s opinion on what vaccines are right for you. This will depend on where you go. However, vaccines are your best protection against dozens of diseases, such as hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, measles, rubella and tetanus.

Discover more about the importance of travel vaccinations.

According to a CDC advisory committee, people over the age of 50 should add the shingles vaccination to their health to-do list. In Australia, Zostavax (or the Zoster vaccine) is registered for use from 50 years of age and is offered for free to Australians at 70 years of age through the NIP. Shingles is a reactivation of the same virus that causes chickenpox and symptoms include severe pain, itching and tingling preceding a rash, which usually occurs as one band around one side of the body. You may also have a fever, headache and chills.

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No vaccine is foolproof, but a vaccine won’t be approved unless it’s safe and effective. “Depending on which vaccine we’re talking about there is a range of effectiveness,” says Dr Edwards. “The most effective is probably measles which has 95 percent effectiveness, 98 to 99 percent effectiveness after the second dose.” Chickenpox is over 90 percent and DTP about 85 percent, she adds. Even the flu vaccine – which is developed each year based on projections of which viruses will be circulating – is anywhere from 50 to 75 percent effective, says Dr Edward.

“This is a dangerous belief,” says Dr Schaffner. One reason measles was almost eradicated in the Western hemisphere is that nearly everyone was vaccinated, he says. “I find that sceptical people have a hard time explaining this phenomenon.” Misconceptions about vaccines include the fact that infectious diseases were on the wane even before vaccines came along and that you don’t need to get vaccinated because infectious diseases are declining. The truth is that rates of these illnesses are declining precisely because we have had successful vaccinations.

A newborn’s immune system is still developing, says the CDC. Which is why it’s important that your child get vaccines on the recommended schedule. Delaying means increasing the risk of infection. Recommendations are based on what science says about how young immune systems react to antigens at particular times. Vaccinating early and giving your child’s immune system time to ramp up means a smaller window of time they might be exposed to an infectious illness. Not to mention the risk that if your child does get sick, he or she will pass on a potentially dangerous illness to someone else.

Vaccines come from either killed or weakened germs, or just specific proteins from them, which won’t cause serious illness. To help the body recognise and fight the disease in the future, the immune system will have the same response it would to a real infection, says Eileen Yamada, MD, a public health medical officer. Usually the most you’ll get are minor symptoms like a brief fever that’s way less dangerous than anything you’d pick up from your environment. Vaccines also don’t cause long-term health complications, as decades of actually giving vaccines have demonstrated.

According to the WHO, two to three million lives are saved every year thanks to vaccines. Now the world is already starting to see vaccines work wonders in preventing and controlling Covid-19.

Vaccines may also one day make it possible to not need vaccines.

“When we eradicated smallpox we stopped vaccinating against smallpox,” explains Dr Schaffner. When mass vaccination programs work the way they’re supposed to – everyone gets the shot – it can lead to the eradication of a disease. Before the vaccine, smallpox killed three out of every 10 people, according to the CDC. The last case of naturally acquired smallpox came and went in 1977: A hospital cook in Somalia who shared a vehicle with two smallpox patients. He recovered. Australia saw its last case of smallpox in 1938, North America in 1952, Europe in 1953, South America in 1971, Asia in 1975 and, finally, Africa in 1977.

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Source: RD.com