When a virus first attacks the body, the immune system produces antibodies to fight it. A vaccine is a weak form of a virus; it “teaches” the body to recognize danger. Therefore, when attacked by a real virus, the body is already prepared and will defend itself more actively.

The vaccine protects not only the individual, but also those around them. If the majority is vaccinated (approximately 75-94% of the population), then the rest have nothing to fear - collective immunity will work. Infants, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are not vaccinated, but they are not at risk because of those who receive the vaccine. Thus, the health of the nation depends on the choice of each individual.

Vaccination is the only reliable way to protect against influenza. Antibiotics do not act on the virus, but there is a high risk of complications. Up to half a million people die from influenza every year. The disease spreads quickly, with epidemics occurring every year. Therefore, vaccination has become the most effective prevention.

In 2011, 49 US states did not provide sufficient whooping cough vaccinations. As a result, 42 thousand people became infected with the virus in 2012, the largest outbreak of the disease since 1955.

Are parents' fears justified?

Some parents are concerned that the vaccine may cause fever and seizures. Up to 5% of children experience cramps during a cold. In fact, vaccines are more likely to prevent seizures caused by diseases such as measles and chickenpox.

The composition of the vaccine is harmless to the child, doctors assure. Merthiolate, formaldehyde and aluminum can be dangerous in large doses, but vaccines use small amounts of these substances. Significantly more aluminum is found in breast milk. Experts say that in everyday life there are many more bacteria, viruses, toxins and harmful substances than are contained in one vaccine.

An adverse reaction to a vaccine is very rare. The most common of these is allergies, which occur once in hundreds of thousands of vaccinations. According to CNN's chief medical officer, a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

The number of cases of post-vaccination complications (PVC) decreased from 500-600 in 2006-2012 to 202 in 2015; in 10 months of 2016, 164 cases were recorded. In terms of the number of vaccinations performed more than 110.6 million annually, the frequency of PVO in 2015 was only one case per 550 thousand vaccinations.

The anti-vaccination movement began in 1998 Andrew Wakefield linked vaccinations to autism by publishing a “study” in which he cited 12 examples of autism infection after vaccinations against measles, rubella and mumps (all in one syringe). Experts could not find confirmation of this theory. Reasons for concern were sought in the USA, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Australia, examining 1.2 million children.

In January 2010, the General Medical Council accused both Wakefield and the publication that published the “study” of misconduct. In April 2015, American scientists announced that the vaccine did not cause autism even in children predisposed to the disease.

The safety of vaccinations is confirmed by most authoritative organizations, including WHO, UN and UNICEF. Vaccinated women protect their potential children from viruses that may appear at birth. The vaccine prevents possible problems with the heart, hearing, vision, stomach, as well as mental illnesses.

Mantoux test value

The Mantoux test in Russia is carried out for all children and adolescents. Almost every adult is infected with the tuberculosis bacillus; the reaction in almost 100% of cases indicates the presence of the disease. In this case, the degree is important. If the indicator is average, the person is safe. If the indicator is high, this is a bad signal. Today, there are 80 cases of the disease per 100 thousand population, but thanks to the Mantoux test it can be detected at an early stage.

Water is an irritant that will increase the reaction to the vaccine and it may be mistakenly identified as positive. In this case, additional samples will be needed. Therefore, there is no need to wash, swim or steam in a bathhouse, nor do you need to scratch, warm or rub the injection site.

Vaccination of children and adolescents is carried out free of charge. The cost of a Mantoux test for adults in Moscow varies from 800 to 3380 rubles. In any case, the vaccine itself costs much less than treatment and care for the patient.

Also, in a medical institution, a person will be able to receive complete information about vaccinations, the consequences of refusing them and possible consequences. A person also has the right to free vaccinations included in the national calendar of preventive vaccinations and the vaccination calendar for epidemic indications, and to a medical examination before vaccinations, and to receive medical care in case of post-vaccination complications.

Effectiveness of vaccination

Thanks to vaccinations, polio was eradicated from the United States by 1979. And by 1980, vaccination rid the world of smallpox and the consequences of the disease - liver and uterine cancer. By 2012, the incidence of chickenpox, diphtheria and rubella had decreased by 99%.

According to the UN, vaccinations save 2.5 million children, which is approximately 285 children per hour. According to the American Center for Disease Control, thanks to vaccination from 1994 to 2014, 732 thousand children were saved in the United States, and the disease was prevented in 322 million cases.

While 16,316 people died from polio and 29,004 from smallpox in the 20th century, there were only 500 cases of polio reported worldwide in 2014, mostly in small countries such as Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

If parents are afraid to vaccinate their child, there are alternative medical methods. Instead of the Mantoux test, you can do a quantiferon test; it costs from 1,500 to 4,500 thousand rubles. The danger cannot be ignored in any case.

When a baby is born, he usually has immunity to certain diseases. This is thanks to disease-fighting antibodies that are passed through the placenta from mother to unborn baby. Subsequently, the breastfeeding infant continually receives additional antibodies through breast milk. But such immunity is only temporary.

Vaccination (inoculation, immunization) is the creation of artificial immunity to certain diseases. For this purpose, relatively harmless antigens (protein molecules) are used, which are part of microorganisms that cause diseases. Microorganisms can be viruses, such as measles, or bacteria.

Vaccination is one of the best means to protect children against infectious diseases that caused serious illness before vaccinations were available. Unfounded criticism of vaccination in the press was caused by the desire of journalists to inflate sensations from individual cases of post-vaccination complications. Yes, side effects are common to all medications, including vaccines. But the risk of getting a complication from vaccination is much less than the risk from the consequences of an infectious disease in unvaccinated children.

Vaccines stimulate the immune system to respond as if there were a real infection. The immune system then fights the “infection” and remembers the microorganism that caused it. Moreover, if the microbe enters the body again, it effectively fights it.

There are currently four different types of vaccines available:

· biosynthetic vaccines; they contain substances obtained by genetic engineering methods that cause a reaction in the immune system. For example, hepatitis B vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae infection.

It is important to make sure that your children are immunized at the correct time. Recommended vaccinations for children. The following vaccination plan is recommended by pediatricians. Usually, only healthy children are vaccinated strictly according to schedule, so the issue of vaccination timing is decided individually by your pediatrician.

DTP vaccination (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough).

first - at 3 months

the second - at 4 months

Revaccinations:

first (RV1) - 18 months, DPT

second (RV2) - 6 years, ADS-M

third (RV3) - 11 years old, AD-M

fourth (RV4) - 16-17 years old, ADS-M

adults - once, every 10 years, ADS-M (AD-M)

Polio vaccination.

first - at 3 months

the second - at 4 months

third - at 5 months from birth

Revaccinations:

first (RV1) - 18 months

second (RV2) - 2 years

third (RV3) - 6 years

BCG (against tuberculosis)

Vaccination on days 4-7 of life (usually in a maternity hospital)

Revaccinations:

first (RV1) - 7 years

second (RV2) - 14 years (performed for children not infected with tuberculosis and not vaccinated at 7 years old)

Measles, mumps, rubella

Vaccination at 1 year.

Revaccination at 6 years of age.

Hepatitis B.

Despite the fact that vaccination actually helps prevent about 6 million deaths worldwide, and the necessity and safety of vaccinations has been confirmed by numerous studies, many people doubt the effectiveness and necessity of this procedure. In fact, many fears are completely unfounded and the benefits of vaccinations significantly outweigh their possible harm.

What vaccinations are needed?

Vaccination in Russia is carried out according to the National Preventive Vaccination Calendar, which is approved by the Ministry of Health. This document defines the timing and types of vaccinations that are given en masse under the compulsory health insurance program.

Vaccination helps reduce the risk of contracting a particular disease. The Russian national calendar includes vaccinations against the 12 most common infections: hepatitis B, tuberculosis, pneumococcal infection, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hemophilus influenzae, polio, measles, rubella, endemic mumps, influenza.

In addition, the calendar contains a list of 16 preventive vaccinations that are given according to epidemic indications. They are received by people who are at risk of possible infection - working or living in areas of natural focal infections (for example, tick-borne encephalitis) or zoonotic infections (for example, anthrax), as well as those who work with the causative agents of these diseases. Different countries have their own vaccination calendar - in the USA it is mandatory to vaccinate against 16 infections, and in Germany - from 14.

A complete list of available vaccines and vaccination dates can be found.

Is it possible to get vaccinated according to an individual schedule?

Can. In some cases, vaccinations can be delayed. The decision on this should be made by the doctor after examining the patient and conducting the necessary tests. In any case, the individual schedule assumes that the child will receive all the necessary vaccines, but later than recommended by the National Immunization Schedule.

You should not choose an individual vaccination schedule without obvious reasons - any alternative vaccination schedule is unsafe. Paul Offit from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explains that individual vaccination only increases the period of time in which a child can become infected with a particular infectious disease that can be protected from with a vaccine.

About 88% of American pediatricians are faced with requests to delay vaccinations every day, mostly due to the fact that a young child is receiving too many vaccines, which (in their opinion) negatively affects the functioning of his immune system. Experts answer that the body encounters pathogens that its immune system is forced to fight every day.

But vaccines can cause allergies, right?

Like any other drug, the administration of a vaccine may be accompanied by adverse reactions. There may be redness in the injection area, a rise in temperature, and a rash may develop - as a rule, such reactions are short-lived and quickly disappear.

In some cases, more serious side effects develop, but these are very rare. American neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta explains that “the risk of developing a serious allergic reaction to the measles vaccine is 100 times lower than the risk of being struck by lightning.”

Do vaccines cause autism?

No. This popular myth stems from an article published in 1988 in the respected scientific journal The Lancet. Its author, Andrew Wakefield, argued that there is a connection between vaccination and cancer. However, in 2010, the article was retracted and the author was deprived of his medical license. It turned out that only 12 people took part in the experiment, and in addition, Wakefield was financially interested in demonstrating this dependence. Not a single scientist was able to repeat the results he obtained, which means that the conclusions published in the article are incorrect.

Isn't it better to strengthen your immune system naturally?

Newborn children in the first months after birth are protected by antibodies they received from their parents. This period, however, is short-lived and soon the child becomes defenseless against most diseases.

Natural immunity against measles, whooping cough and other dangerous diseases can only be formed if the child gets sick with them. However, it is strange to expose a baby to certain diseases on purpose. First, the severity of the disease cannot be controlled and the child may develop serious complications. Secondly, the infected patient himself becomes a source of infection and can infect both small children and people with immunodeficiency.

A newborn baby can receive vitamin K in the first days after birth. And the purpose of this injection is good - the prevention of hemorrhagic disease, which is very dangerous for the child’s life. Why does an American doctor, in whose country these injections have been performed for more than half a century, oppose this?

Source: Fotolia

Vitamin K injection to a newborn is done based on the following considerations:

• During pregnancy, vitamin K is retained by the placenta, as a result of which its amount in the newborn’s body is often deficient;
• Vitamin K in the adult body is synthesized by microorganisms populating the gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract of a newborn baby is sterile - it will take time to populate it with both beneficial and harmful (alas, this is inevitable, bacteria);
• in colostrum and even in mother’s breast milk, vitamin K is present in very limited quantities;
• injections of vitamin K are necessary for the newborn’s body, because his liver is not able to synthesize proteins in the required quantities, and this, in turn, affects the level of vitamin K in the newborn’s body;
• and the last fact: vitamin K deficiency, depending on the severity, can lead to poor healing of the umbilical cord, bleeding before the age of three months, and in especially severe cases - to cerebral hemorrhage, extremely difficult treatment, disability of the child and even death outcome.

So does a newborn need vitamin K?

Opponents of administering vitamin K to a newborn have their own arguments. And one of the most important is written down in the instructions for Vikasol; this is the name of vitamin K in the language of pharmacists, in the “Side Effects” section:

Allergic reactions: facial hyperemia, skin rash (including erythematous, urticaria), skin itching, bronchospasm.

From the blood system : hemolytic anemia, hemolysis in newborns with congenital deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase.

Local reactions: pain and swelling at the injection site, skin lesions in the form of spots with repeated injections into the same place.

Others: hyperbilirubinemia, jaundice (including kernicterus in infants); rarely - dizziness, transient decrease in blood pressure, profuse sweat, tachycardia, weak pulse filling, changes in taste sensations.

Source: shutterstock

As you can see, the possible side effects of administering vitamin K to a newborn are no less terrible than the diseases that may arise as a result of its action. By the way, according to statistics, hemorrhagic disease occurs in 0.25% - 1.7% of newborns (data from American statistics. Not enough? What if your child falls into this 0.25%?

On the Internet, on “mom’s” forums, you can find a lot of personal stories about what mothers had to go through as a result of vitamin K deficiency in their newborn. And at the end of almost every post - “If vitamin K had been introduced, this would not have happened!” It is difficult, however, to say whether it would have happened or not - history, as we know, does not have a subjunctive mood. And this aphorism has the most direct relation to pediatrics.

Source: Burda Media

Besides the side effects of giving vitamin K to a newborn, there is also simple logic. Namely: the placenta does not allow vitamin K to pass through? Is nature wrong? Maybe if it doesn’t let you through, it means it’s not really needed? After all, babies take millions of years to be born, but research on the role of vitamin K in the newborn is only a few decades old. The same can be said in contrast to the statement that colostrum and breast milk are poor in vitamin K.

However, in many countries around the world there is a practice of universally administering vitamin K to a newborn. American doctor Joseph Mercol talks about why you should refuse an injection and what to replace it with in his article “The Dark Side of a Routine Vitamin K Injection.”

Since 1944, in the United States, as well as in most Western countries, it has been standard practice to welcome newborn babies into the world with a range of medical interventions, one of which is a painful needle injection of a syringe full of vitamin K. This injection is usually given to almost all newborns, unless you as a parent you won’t give up on her.

Is this injection really in the best interests of the child? Is vitamin K really needed immediately after birth? And is there a more humane alternative?

Source: Fotolia

Why is this injection given immediately?

Vitamin K (from English - koagulation - coagulation)- a fat-soluble vitamin that is involved in blood clotting. It is administered to newborns to prevent hemorrhagic disease (vitamin K deficiency). This disease leads to the fact that the baby’s blood stops clotting, the umbilical wound bleeds and does not heal, and gastric bleeding and hemorrhages in the internal organs are possible. This disease is especially dangerous due to hemorrhages in the brain, which can be fatal.

Although it is a rare disorder (0.25% to 1.7%), standard practice is to administer vitamin K injections as a preventative measure, regardless of whether risk factors are present.

Injection dangers they don't warn you about

There are three main areas of risk associated with this injection:

1. Probably the most significant is the infliction of pain immediately after birth, leading to possible psycho-emotional distress and trauma to the newborn.
2. The amount of vitamin K administered to newborns is 20,000 times the required dose. In addition, the injection solution may contain preservatives that are toxic to a weak and immature immune system.
3. At a time when the child’s immune system is still immature, the injection creates an additional risk of introducing infection from the environment in which dangerous infectious agents are located.

Vitamin K by mouth is a safe and effective alternative

Fortunately, while recent research has shown that there are safer and better methods that will be just as effective in protecting your child from TTH, the alternative to this blatantly unnecessary injection is surprisingly simple: give the vitamin orally. It is safe and equally effective, and free of the previously mentioned worrying side effects.

Orally administered vitamin K is absorbed less efficiently than parenterally administered vitamin K. However, this can be easily corrected by adjusting the dose. And since vitamin K is non-toxic, there is no danger of overdose or adverse reactions.

What do you need to do before the baby is born?

1. Whether or not to agree to a vitamin K injection for your child is ultimately a personal choice. At least now you have information with which you can make an informed decision.
2. During childbirth, anxiety makes it very difficult to keep it in your head that your baby should not get an injection. So it might be helpful to have someone at the birth, such as your spouse, to remind the staff that your baby shouldn't have the shot.
3. Remember that you must be proactive. Typically, nurses never ask permission to give a vaccine or vitamin K injection, as this is standard practice and does not require separate consent. Therefore, you must be very careful and persistent in your demands.
4. Please remember - you must show maximum perseverance and perseverance in order to force your desires to be taken into account. The system will fight you tooth and nail, because its representatives are sincerely convinced that they know better. It's worth the extra protection for your newborn.

Our immunity is the main enemy of various viral and colds, which especially bother us during cold periods. It’s good when a person leads a healthy lifestyle, adheres to a healthy diet - then his immune system very firmly and confidently guards his health. It’s another matter when, for one reason or another, our immunity is weakened, and just during the period of activation of colds and viral diseases. In this case, vaccinations can come to our aid. However, this procedure also has its own nuances, which are useful to know not only for medical personnel, but also for you and me.

Vaccinations are contraindicated if you are allergic to chicken protein. The fact is that almost all vaccines used to protect the body from influenza viruses contain chicken protein and antibiotics. If you know for sure that you have a pronounced allergic reaction to these components, then it is better to refuse vaccination and boost your immunity with traditional medicine. If you do not know whether you are allergic to chicken protein or not, then it is better to undergo an allergogram before vaccination. You can do without the latter. If you regularly eat chicken eggs without any health problems, then most likely you do not have any allergies.

You cannot vaccinate if an old disease has worsened. If during the period of mass vaccination any chronic disease worsened or you simply had a fever, it is better to refuse vaccination. Wait out the period of exacerbation, and then get vaccinated.

Check the expiration date of the vaccine yourself. Before the vaccination, ask your doctor or nurse to show you the bottle of the drug to make sure for yourself that they are not going to inject you with expired medicine (and this sometimes happens). Most likely, such a vaccination will not have any effect on your body at all, but there may be a quite serious opposite reaction. Typically, the shelf life of most such drugs is 1 year. In addition, the drug must be stored in the refrigerator. Don’t be shy to check this too.

You cannot vaccinate at home. Even if you are a qualified specialist in the field of medicine or are good at giving injections, it is better to carry out vaccination in a medical facility.

Possible side effects. Although the modern drugs currently used almost completely eliminate the possibility of side effects, monitor your health more carefully for several days after vaccination. Swelling, redness at the injection site, increased body temperature - in the first two days - this is normal. But if the symptoms linger, consult a doctor immediately.