It seems I’m always getting ready to give yet another vaccination to a young child. As a doctor and parent, it’s important to understand why these vaccinations are being recommended to you.

The offerings
At 2, 4, 6 and 18 months

• young, healthy newborns start with pentacel, the 5-in-1 vaccine, to protect against diphtheria, tetanus (lockjaw), pertussis or whooping cough, polio and haemophilus influenza type b meningitis.

• along with a second shot called prevnar: helps protect against the bacteria streptococcus pneumoniae which can cause pneumococcal meningitis, a serious infection of the covering of the brain (the meninges), if untreated can lead to complications such as deafness, brain damage and even death. This bacterium can also cause blood borne infections, pneumonia and ear infections.

At 1 year

• protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox. Many people underestimate the impact of chicken pox which not only leads to those uncomfortable spots that can scar, but is associated with pneumonia or even, less rarely, death.

• protects against meningococcal C the bacteria that causes meningitis C, can lead to potential serious disability and even death.

On the rise
Pertussis or whooping cough is making a resurgence. Because of this teens at 15 are encouraged to update their immunity to pertussis along with tetanus and diphtheria. I encourage adults to speak to their physician about the adult pertussis vaccination. The lowering levels of immunity in our population are leading to a worrisome comeback of this disease.

Immunity
While vaccines can’t offer 100% immunity, it can protect against serious illness. Before vaccinations, we saw up to 20,000 cases per year of such diseases as polio, essentially eradicated in the Americas post vaccine. In Canada, doctors saw between 300,000 to 400,000 cases of measles a year, now there’s less than 400 a year. And Hib meningitis, a major and potentially disabling disease, used to report 2000 cases annually before vaccines, now we see less than 15 cases over 5 years.

There’s no question, primary prevention is our best tool against all these diseases.

One in 460 Canadian children from birth to five years have the highest probability of contracting an invasive pneumococcal disease: pneumococcal pneumonia, pneumoccocal meningitis and sepsis. Pneumococcal vaccines are well tolerated and safe.

For information, read the Canadian Immunization Guide on the Health Canada site. In my practice, the advice remains the same…roll up your sleeve. H&L


Dr. Marla Shapiro, Assoc. Prof. at the University of Toronto, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine; she’s CTV’s weekly Medical Consultant on Canada AM and hosts Balance… for living well TV daily; and a regular Globe and Mail health columnist.