I would agree, & I expect if their pediatricians or teachers or any other mandated reporter gets wind of it, that it will open up an investigation.
Haven’t read all of this but about “measle parties”…
Maybe some of the problem is there being two types of measles.
German measles (rubella) is pretty benign (also called 3 day measles) but if a woman in early pregnancy catches it the baby could be born with birth defects which accounts for “measles” parties . So the idea when I was little was once a kid had it in the neighborhood they could spread it around and everyone would be protected in the future when it may have serious consequences.
Regular measles (rubeola) is a far more severe infection, totally different from rubella) and should be vaccinated against.
I DO NOT understand communicable disease.
So in this article Dr Schaffner says that babies have immunity from birth from mothers antibodies, for 6-8 months.
Vaccinating them during this time would not activate their own immune response, which is why we wait to vaccinate until they are 12-18 months.
But how are the other diseases that we vaccinate for at birth/ first few months different?
We say that we vaccinate for HBV at birth because we don’t trust the parents to make a return visit.
But Hep B is transmitted through infected body fluids and blood, not casually, and measles is transmitted through the AIR.
So it seems that to follow that logic, we would be vaccinating for the most contagious diseases at birth instead of waiting a year.
http://www.livescience.com/49716-measles-outbreak-questions.html
There was an article this morning in our HI paper about 15 cases of measles in 4 separate outbreaks last year. It appears the people were all unvaccinated–some babies and some adults. A few were hospitalized but none of the cases caused lasting harm. We have a lot of immigrants and people who vicit the Phillipines and other places where vacination rates may not be as high. Our vaccination rate for measles is about 93% which is reproted as slightly above the national average.
Yes that’s right, emeraldkity4, you’ve figured out something that all of the immunologists, biologists, biochemists, infectious-disease docs, and public health specialists haven’t thought about.
What I read says that babies can catch Hep B at birth from their mothers, and that vaccination at birth has a protective effect for those babies. I’m not sure how that would work, but maybe the vaccination jumpstarts the immune response so that it can respond to the Hep B infection threat faster.
Had. The key word is HAD. Meaning we’ve grown and developed.
We vaccinate newborns against HepB to interrupt maternal-fetal transmission.
Ahh, but I just got off the phone with my lovely health insurance company, Humana, and they don’t cover Hep A or Hep B because they are “not covered according to the CDC” (except under certain conditions). What???
Somebody find me some ammo/rebuttal.
Hmmm- schools require Hep A & B or at least ours does.
We got our HepA & HepB as participants in clinical trials, where they were trying to determine the correct dose. You can go to the CDC website to see what is required and recommended at different ages. Our insurer wouldn’t budge when I got shingles vaccine before age 60; no reimbursement because CDC didn’t require it, even for those of us with crhronic health conditions.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/vacc-specific/hepb.html is the webpage with vaccine recommendations.
I don’t understand. I’ve looked all over the CDC web site and it recommends both Hep A and B for young children. It’s on the adult and “catch up” schedule too. Where is Humana getting this bad info from?
It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve given me bad info…
Sometimes it pays to call back and hopefully get an agent who is more helpful on the phone. If you do, be sure to get their full name and contact info. I have found considerable variation in helpfulness and accuracy of medical insurance staff.
Get something in writing from insurer about why they would deny coverage if that is their position. If you get good info, get that in writing as well, via fax or email or snail mail.
Providence College in RI has had a second case of Meningitis and is vaccinating 3000 students. I wonder what happens if they refuse?
Hep B is required in our state to attend school. Hep A is not but my girls had it when traveled overseas and we went ahead and got second Hep A since that supposedly gives lifetime protection and I didn’t want to worry about it again when they might travel abroad in college.
EPTR, unless it is mandated by the college already, I doubt there’s much they can do. I think it would be a pretty uphill battle to require it retroactively.
I’ve watched my dad go through meningitis twice (ok, admittedly I was only a few months old the first time so I didn’t “watch” that). Why anyone would refuse the vaccine is beyond me.
Because people are stupid.
My father used to say (quoting someone else, I’m sure) that there are more horses’ asses in this world than there are horses.
Our saying is - the average American is an idiot.
Aren’t we gettig carried away here? More than 90% of Americans are vaccinated. In other words, an avaerage American is vaccinated and not an idiot. The worst state with vaccines is Colorado at about 83%. Even in Colorado, an average person is vaccinated.
The averages aren’t useful if you have a dear one who is vulnearable and you are in an area where the averages do not hold. 90% of the state, the city , the area could be innoculated, but not your school or community. My kids went to a music program where half the kids were not vaccinated. Many of them were home schooled and that community did not vaccinate. I had no idea, until I ended up with a high risk kid and started sniffing this stuff out.