Vaccination

Anti-vaxxers gonna hate me for this and I am a pro-vaxxer and not open for discussion or comments about this.  It's your choice to vaccinate or not and I chose to do it.

This post is not based on any research or anything from Google.  It's entirely my own opinion.  If you disagree with me, you can keep it to yourself.  I am not interested to know.

No, no, I am not angry or hate anti-vaxxers.  Not at all.  I understand your stand on it.  I have a friend who didn't vaccinate her children at all.  It's her choice.  Things like autism, MMR, mercury and stuff in the vaccines do scare us a lot.  

But I don't get it when parents already opt for vaccination and have already given their babies vaccination from birth.  What's the point of telling them, look this is what vaccination has done and so your baby is at the risk of having autism because he/she had MMR and stuff like that?  Why is there a need to scare the parents further?  Those who believe in that will regret giving their baby the vaccination and worry to no end about the side-effects, which may or may not happen.

I saw in TBAN where a few anti-vaxxers are quite active.  Whenever a topic about vaccination is up, they will post non-stop about research and evidence that it is link to this and that and what not.  This is what really irks me.  I mean, what's done is done.  You can go and tell parents who have never vaccinate their baby before and are asking for opinion whether to do it or not.  Don't tell parents who ALREADY done it and curse them that their baby will die lah, or this or that bad thing will happen to their baby JUST BECAUSE THEY CHOSE TO VACCINATE.  I am sorry, but I really can't stand this kind of attitude.  Because once vaccinated, you can't reverse it.  But those who are yet to vaccinate, you can still do so.

Some parents are not very strong and very naive.  Especially when it comes to first born.  So many things are first and new.  They may listened and get affected.  

Recently, there's an outbreak of diphtheria in Melaka.  Because some parents doesn't want to vaccinate their kid and one kid got it and then spread to another kid who also did not vaccinate and both kids died.  Tbh, I have no idea what diphtheria is until this happened and started reading about it.  I let my baby had the DTap vaccination, which includes diphtheria, polio, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) at our Klinik Kesihatan.  According to the nurses at the Klinik Kesihatan, this jab is currently out of stock in private hospitals.  The Government only allocate the vaccines to Klinik Kesihatan.  

I didn't know the severity of diphtheria.  Yes, I heard of polio and have a colleague who had polio as a kid and yes, disabled.  And recently too I have heard that a newborn in one of the first world country died of whooping cough because he caught the virus from someone who did not vaccinate and the newborn was too young to be vaccinated.

DTap is given at 2 months, 3 months and 6 months upon birth.  It is a compulsory jab in baby's book, unlike jab like pneumococcal which is an optional jab.  

As a new mother, I also heard that children who are not vaccinated cannot enter public schools.  So, I wonder, how does anti-vaxxers children enter school?  Home-schooled?  Private?  I don't know.

Why did I choose to vaccinate by baby?  Because I feel nowadays there are crazy viruses or bacteria that can be prevented by vaccination.  And nowadays, these viruses and bacteria can mutate and become something else.  I do agree that some vaccination are not necessary, like chicken pox, flu jab.  And vaccination cannot protect you against viruses or bacteria that have already mutated.  Such as SARS or bird flu or mad cow's disease as such.  So it's not 100% fool-proof.

  

I didn't have chicken pox jab when I was young, mainly because that jab was not available then.  And when I had the chicken pox virus when I was 12 years old, it was quite bad.  I was out of school for 3 weeks.  First week, the blisters grew.  Second week, the blisters dried.  Third week, the dried skin dropped off from my skin.

Initially, it wasn't that scary because the blisters were just filled with water and on my body at random places, started on my thighs.  Then it grew more and my whole body, including scalp, neck, feet, face and even private parts were covered with tiny watery blisters.  Not an empty spot missed.  And of course, the fever started as my body started to protect me from the infection.  So, I was quarantined and confined to bed as I was told I cannot break these blisters as they will leave a scar and also not to look into the mirror (old superstitions that it will grow more, but I think more like parents don't want the kids to get scare by the look).

Then, in the second week, the blisters started drying and darken.  From transparent blisters, now it's all black/brown.  And it's itchy.  I started to feel better by then and was able to walk around.

In the last week, the dried skin started dropping from my body.  There was so much of dried skin that I can collect in a dustpan full every single morning from my bed.  That was how bad my chicken pox was.

I also heard that if an adult had chicken pox, it takes longer time to recover compared to a kid.  Even after vaccination, it doesn't mean you will be completely protected from it.  It's just the outbreak won't be that serious.  Good news is, once you have it, you are protected for life.

My nephew caught measles when he was 1 year old.  He was due for the MMR jab but it was out of stock at private hospitals then.  He caught it while playing in a little play area in a restaurant for someone's first birthday.  Obviously, one of the kid had it and some irresponsible parents let him/her out of the house and not quarantined and started spreading.

He recovered pretty quick and everything was alright.  But that time, there was a scare because I was trying to conceive.  They were thinking of what if I was pregnant and not vaccinated and caught the measles virus?  The effects can be quite serious to the baby in the womb.  Luckily then I was not pregnant then and on top of that, I already have the MMR jab when young.

A colleague of mine who was pregnant and contracted mumps when she was in the early pregnancy stage.  She had to be hospitalised to monitor the baby in her womb.  But all is well at the end.  Thank God.

Just a thought for all of us to ponder.  If you vaccinate, there are risks that your baby may or may not have autism (if you believe in all the anti-MMR research out there).  If you do not vaccinate, chances of your baby contracting a deadly virus is higher and risking baby's life is also high.  So, in the end, it's your choice.  Either one is also not good.

So, don't hate me for this post.  It's your choice in the end.  It's not too late to vaccinate now (for some vaccines).