Vaccinations. It is hard for me to grapple with the fact that this topic has become increasingly controversial in recent years, especially in the United States. The longer I am in healthcare, the more passionate I become about the importance of every child being vaccinated by age 2, formally known as the Every Child By 2 campgain, founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

I have found this topic to be of escalating interest and importance now that we live in Colorado, a state known for parents seeking non-traditional medical sources and information. Several years ago Colorado ranked last among the 50 states in immunization rates and today sits at #22. This information came from the state immunization registry that is handled by the University Hospital that neighbors the hospital I work at. Colorado is also an interesting place because public schools do not require students to be immunized before attending schools, under ammendment 25-4-903. The amendment allows students to skip immunizations for religious purposes, which is hardly the reason that most parents are skipping or altering the traditional immunization guideline and schedule as set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and endorsed the the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It is exceptionally surprising to me that so many parents readily take medical advice from un-trained and in-conclusive sources on an array of topics, including immunizations. The largest speculative argument for either changing a child’s immunization schedule, or tossing it out completely, is that immunizations lead to autism. We hear this reasoning given from parents to the pediatricians we work with at my hospital. Unfortunately the internet has awarded too many parents their M.D. and fewer parents trust the expertise of folks who actually went to school for 12+ years, specializing in child health.

I think this topic has really become a passion of mine because our hospital treats kids daily who are affected by kiddos not being immunized on the reccommended schedule, and unfortuantely the kids who are most effected are kiddos with already compromised immune systems that have had their own immunizations….like kiddos who have or had cancer who have to come to the hospital for special shots because a friend or classmate, or a friend’s baby brother/sister has not had their immunizations on time.  We have also seen a resurgance in diseases like polio because kiddos are not recieving their immunizations on time. Polio in suburban American in 2009 – really??? It breaks my heart.

I am thrilled that one of the world’s top Pediatric Infectious Disease physicians, Paul A. Offit, MD, Chief of Infectious Disease, at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) (one of the best pediatric hospitals in the world) has written a book, Autism’s Flase Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, which addresses the topic of immunizations as it relates to autism and other trendy-Hollywood-earth momma reasons for not immunizing. You can read the New York Times article about the book from Tuesday here. I would encourage any parent who is doubting using the reccommended immunization schedule to check out Dr. Offit’s book.

So there you go. My, hopefully not  logorrheic, rant on the importance of immunizations