– If your doctor advises you not to vaccinate, you should run away from him. I would like to invite such colleagues to my ward, because they do not know what a child who suffocates due to whooping cough or dies as a result of meningitis looks like. I know. And that’s why I tell parents: vaccination is a health policy – says prof. Jacek Wysocki and explains how vaccination has changed the world.
- Prof. Wysocki notes that the coronavirus pandemic could cause two important problems. First, when children return to schools and nurseries, infections may increase. Children can “pass” the virus to their parents and grandparents. The second problematic issue is the overlap of the flu season with the next wave of the epidemic that may come in the fall
- Vaccination is the solution to many problems in health care. – They changed the world – says the professor.
- Expert explains why herd immunity is so important and reassures parents who fear vaccination during a pandemic
Journalists for Health Association: We are at the stage of unfreezing social life. How to conduct them safely in terms of the prevention of infectious diseases?
Prof. Jacek Wysocki: Safe defrosting of social life is only possible with immunization. Until mid-March this year. the season of infectious diseases among children was like any other. When nurseries, kindergartens and schools closed, we saw a rapid decline in the number of cases of influenza, pneumococcal infections and even meningococcal infections.
Currently, kindergartens and nurseries are returning to activity, and school children will soon go on organized holidays. So we have two problems.
Firstly, we are concerned that the return of children to the community will increase the number of infections with SARS-CoV-2, and the “victims” of this will not necessarily be children, who are often asymptomatic and account for 1-2% of the population. patients with COVID-19 in Poland, but their parents and grandparents.
Secondly, we would like to avoid a situation where the seasonal increase in influenza or pneumococcal disease overlaps with SARS-CoV-2 infections. That is why vaccinations are so necessary.
There are still many myths about them …
These myths are most often created by individuals or organizations that have nothing to do with healthcare. You can only believe information on websites run by major institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene or the European Committee for Disease Control (ECDC).
The average parent is unaware of how children’s lives have changed over the past 100 years. The Polish statistical yearbook from 1920 states that the infant mortality rate was 187 per 1000 live births (that is, this number of infants did not reach the end of the first year of life), and today it is 5. In 80 percent. this is due to preventive vaccinations. They changed the world.
What does the Polish vaccination calendar look like compared to Europe and the world?
He is average – neither very poor nor very rich. In one case, we use an old whole cell vaccine – against whooping cough. The problem with it is that it does not occur in multi-component vaccines. In addition, many vaccines, e.g. against chicken pox, rotavirus or meningococcus, which are among the recommended and therefore paid vaccinations in our country, are reimbursed in other countries.
How important are the recommended vaccinations?
They are very important and worth doing. A good example is the aforementioned vaccination against rotaviruses responsible for gastrointestinal infections. They cause diarrhea with vomiting and a fever. In our conditions, they are not life-threatening, but they cause the child to be hospitalized.
In addition, rotavirus infections are spreading in hospital wards, so a child who goes there due to another disease may become infected with them. Finally, they complicate life in all childhood communities.
- See also: Facts and myths about rotavirus vaccination. Every parent must know this
How has the coronavirus pandemic affected immunization?
Initially, there was concern that the symptoms of the coronavirus infection would overlap with possible side effects of the vaccines, so they were suspended. However, many international organizations have pointed out that there are no contraindications against vaccination during a pandemic, you just need to do it safely. It is not the vaccination itself that poses a threat, but the gathering of many patients in clinics.
And so on April 17 this year. The Ministry of Health issued a directive according to which vaccinations in newborns must not be interrupted, and then vaccinations should be organized for children in the first and second year of life and – if possible – for others.
What does the implementation of vaccinations look like in the new reality?
The fewest problems are in neonatal wards. There, the children were vaccinated. There are not many mothers suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, and their children are born healthy. What is needed is the immediate isolation of such a newborn from the mother so that it does not become infected.
There was some turmoil with vaccinating children in the first year of life, when there are particularly many of them. Parents did not know whether to bring their children to the clinic or not. And the clinics had a dilemma whether to accept healthy children. The situation is now back to normal.
Some parents delay recommended vaccinations during a pandemic. Is it right?
There is no substantive justification for such a procedure. An example would be a six-week-old child who, according to the basic program, is to receive four injections during one visit. When a parent reaches for the recommended vaccinations, he may decide to administer them in two injections, which is less burdensome.
There is also a second group of recommended vaccinations, which have their “administration windows”. They include, among others rotavirus vaccine. Depending on the product, you can vaccinate a child between 6 and 24 (or 32) weeks of age, not later. The vaccine consists of – depending on the product – two or three oral doses. So if the parents decide that the child will get it when, for example, it turns six, this will not be possible anymore.
What about meningococci?
This is another important vaccination that should not be postponed. Meningococci wreak the greatest havoc in the organism of babies, they pose a direct threat to their lives. These bacteria have several serogroups (A, B, C, W, Y). Taking into account the epidemiology, the most urgent in Poland is the administration of the vaccine against meningococcus type B, because they most often cause infections.
Vaccinations can be started when the baby is two months old. Two doses are given in the first year of life and a third in the second year of life. Talk to your doctor about how to give them and combine them with other vaccines. It is also worth considering a vaccine that covers the other four meningococcal serogroups.
It happens, however, that the doctor advises against vaccinating.
One should run away from such a doctor. Sometimes it concerns those doctors who have nothing to do with the treatment of infectious diseases.
I would like to invite such colleagues to my ward, because they do not know what a child who suffocates due to whooping cough or dies as a result of meningitis looks like. I know. And that’s why I tell parents: vaccination is a health policy.
What does it mean?
Parents say that serious infectious diseases do not happen often, so it may not be worth vaccinating a child. And I say: vaccinations are like the policy when we insure the car. We spend money, but we are happy if we don’t have to use this policy. If our child is vaccinated and does not come across a serious disease, we can only be happy. This means that, as a society, we have defended ourselves against the danger that we have population immunity.
Why is population immunity so important?
What no such immunity means can be seen from the effects of the emergence of a new virus for which there is no vaccine. Measles is only visible in small epidemics, because most of the population is vaccinated against it. So that it does not spread, 95 percent. citizens must be immune to it. The fewer people unnecessarily avoiding vaccinations, the safer we will live.
Are anti-vaccination movements waning?
Until 2018, we saw an increase in the number of parents who refused to vaccinate. Later, when a small epidemic of measles cases appeared in Poland, susceptibility to anti-vaccine movements decreased.
In the world, also in Poland, it is estimated that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children constitute 1-3 percent. There is no discussion with them, they do not accept any arguments. They just want to live differently.
A new phenomenon is that parents who normally care for their children do not want to have such children around them. Hence, in many nurseries and kindergartens, it is routinely asked to submit a vaccination book upon admission.
- Also read: It wasn’t that bad yet. Avalanche rise in the number of unvaccinated children
How should a safe vaccination visit work out?
Doctors make an appointment with parents on a specific date and time to avoid patients gathering in clinics. Only one parent comes with the child, who should wear a mask and disinfect his hands at the entrance. An epidemiological interview is also required: a nurse or a registrar asks the parent whether he is in quarantine, whether he has had contact with sick people, whether he has a fever, etc. normal vaccination procedure.
Should such a visit be preceded by teleportation?
Yes. During teleportation, various matters are determined – what type of vaccination is meant, what vaccine is to be used, whether there are any contraindications for the child to go to the clinic, etc. This saves time and facilitates the fulfillment of another recommendation of the Ministry of Health, namely that the child the parent stayed in the clinic as short as possible and had no contact with other patients.
The clinic should ensure a clear separation of sick children from healthy children. They must arrive at different times, and the personnel receiving them must follow certain procedures: change clothes and prepare the offices accordingly.
What are the contraindications for vaccinations?
We do not vaccinate sick children with symptoms of infection, severe allergies or severe side effects after previous vaccinations. However, in the case of children with chronic diseases (e.g. epilepsy, immunodeficiency or cancer), the doctor will indicate when and with which vaccine such a child can be vaccinated.
pediatrician, infectious diseases specialist, head of the Chair and Department of Health Prevention at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Karola Marcinkowski in Poznań, vice-president of the Polish Society of Wakcynology
Press interview prepared by the Association of Journalists for Health in connection with the on-line workshop Quo vadis medicina? XXIII edition, How to vaccinate in the era of the coronavirus pandemic?, July 2020
This may interest you:
- “The sick were left on their own in the pandemic.” Who is to blame for this?
- Coronavirus Has Stopped Measles Outbreak? Surprising data
- How many Poles are vaccinated against COVID-19? Interesting poll results
The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website.