I have heard a lot in the news and social media about vaccines and autism. What exactly is the truth? Do vaccines cause autism?
There is no credible evidence that vaccines cause autism. Over several decades, this question has been investigated by more than 40 high quality studies involving more than 5 million people. The consensus has been clear – there is no link between vaccines and autism. Immunizations keep children healthy. Talk with your child’s pediatrician or healthcare provider if you have questions about vaccines.
Why do we give the hepatitis B vaccine to babies? I heard this is only transmitted from sexual activity.
Hepatitis B is a virus that can be transmitted through blood or bodily fluids. Most people think about this virus being transmitted from sexual activity or directly from the mother. But many cases are not transmitted in those ways and have an unknown source of the infection. Hepatitis B is spread easily from surfaces or from other people who may not know they have it. As many as 1 in 3 adults who become infected with hepatitis B in the United States each year have no risk factors for acquiring infection. And approximately half of people living with chronic hepatitis B did not know they had the infection. Since recommending the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, the number of hepatitis B infections in young babies has dropped by 95%. The vaccine works – it has been shown to be a safe way to prevent hepatitis B infection in babies.
What happens if my child gets the hepatitis B virus? Why is it important?
If a baby gets infected with hepatitis B, it will likely cause long-term liver problems, including liver failure and liver cancer when they are older. The younger a person gets infected with the hepatitis B virus, the more dangerous it is and the higher the risk of developing these problems. Newborns who are infected with hepatitis B during the first year of life have a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B.
I have heard talk about splitting up the MMR vaccine into 3 separate vaccines. Is that a good idea?
The MMR vaccine protects young children against measles, mumps, and rubella. Children typically receive the first dose between 12-15 months of age and the second at age 4-6 years. The vaccines have been combined to reduce the number of pokes a child receives to complete the vaccine series. The combination MMR vaccine has never been shown to be less effective than separate vaccines and data over several decades has never shown a benefit to separating it into different vaccines. Separate vaccines are not available in the United States. The MMR vaccine has been the main reason that measles cases nearly disappeared from the United States over the past 60 years. As MMR vaccine rates have declined in recent years, more measles cases are now being seen.
What is measles? Is measles dangerous? Why is preventing measles important?
Measles typically starts with a fever, cough, runny nose, and red eyes, often followed by a rash that starts on the face and move down the body. Nearly 1 of every 3 measles cases will end in a complication – more serious complications can include pneumonia or inflammation of the brain, called encephalitis. Some serious complications can even develop years after a person is infected with measles. The Columbus area had a measles outbreak in 2022 and Ohio continues to see cases of measles each year.
About 1 in 1000 infected people will die.
I’m concerned about the number of vaccines that are on the immunization schedule. Do children really need this many vaccines? Won’t this many vaccines overwhelm their immune systems?
The current recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedule helps protect children against approximately 20 different infections. Most of these vaccines require multiple shots over several months to years to ensure a good immune response. Before vaccines were developed, these infections routinely caused serious infection in young children. Many of these infections are now uncommon due to the success of vaccines. However, as we’ve seen with recent increases in measles, these infections still circulate and cause illness in children. Vaccines are the best way to protect children against these infections.
Antigens are the molecules that trigger the immune response in the body. All vaccines contain molecules called antigens. So do all bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in the air, in dust, on surfaces, in the soil, and everywhere else in the environment. Each day, the immune systems of babies and young children are exposed to thousands of antigens. The entire childhood immunization schedule, however, contains only 165. Vaccines do not overwhelm the body’s immune system, in fact the opposite – vaccines train the body’s immune system to protect against future infection.
Dane A. Snyder, MD, is the section chief in the Division of Primary Care Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. In addition to his administrative duties, he provides direct patient care at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Hilltop Primary Care Center.
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