The PCT has now come up with some figures to show this more clearly.
They have listed the 29 towns within Devon PCT and show us the vaccination rates for them all.
Now, with Totnes' traditionally "alternative" population vaccination rates had been low for a long time.
The PCT a few years ago looked at this and thought the obvious explanation for low rates was the nursing staff. Clearly they weren't promoting vaccination hard enough, or, somehow, in the process were putting people off.
The nurses went and had special training til the PCT were happy with their performance.
Needless to say vaccination rates didn't change as a result, because it wasn't the nurses; it was of course the special population we serve.in 2007/8 the proportion of children in Totnes who had been given an MMR by the age of five was only 66.7%.
Other towns in Devon with similar, or larger, populations of under 5's were getting rates much higher- eg Bideford- 90%, Dawlish 93%, Tavistock 93.5%.
Similar with DTP/HiB; Totnes 69%, Kingsbridge 96%.
I personally think it is shocking.
People come to live here for a number of reasons I think.
Many people cite living in the area because it is a good place to bring up your children.
If good now means exposing them to the risks associated with dangerous viral illness then I would take issue with it being safe. Safety can, of course be seen in two ways- people clearly see the risk to their child and weigh up the risk of their child suffering a complication of Viral Illness with the perceived risk of the jab. For an individual child the risk of a complication from a virus is indeed low. Get an outbreak and loads of kids in our playgroups and primary schools go down with the viruses, then some of them are going to suffer complications. The risk of a child or two getting very ill in the town in an outbreak is distinct, so from my perspective as a GP it is important to keep on about this I think.
My kids are now more exposed to the threat of illness because others have chosen not to get vaccinations. I don't particularly like to be dictated to, but I accept it where the overall benefit is clear. I am often content to see people go against guidelines and so on where they can make a cogent case to support their variance. I do mind a lot however when vaccinated kids such as my own go down with illness due to the low population, or herd, immunity.
3 comments:
The trouble is, Dr Watkin, is that people don't understand the significance of these illnesses - it would appear to many mothers, for example,that perhaps rubella is the most dangerous and that measles and mumps are mild and transient with few consequences. Herd immunity and its significance is poorly understood and there is (dare I say it in relation to Totnes?)a bit of Black Magic associated with vaccination programmes (and I don't mean the chocolates).
Of course, don't forget the furore over MMR and autism - still in peoples' minds after that connection has been severed.
Perhaps some publicity in the surgery about the effects of non-immunisation would help.
I agree. I think so many well meaning people in this town get influenced by hearsay, conspiracy theories and "junk science", and end up with an over simplistic view of alternative=good, orthodox=bad. I have young children, one of whom is currently suffering from a very nasty viral infection despite being immunized, and I do wonder if this would have been the case had there been more herd immunity in Totnes. I would support more local open debate/information on this subject through this site or in the local press.
I love the argument here that your children are being exposed to illnesses despite being vaccinated. Surely if vaccination was truely successful then this would not be the case. As a mother who has witnessed first hand how vaccinations can cause awful reactions, I find it incrediable that as a GP and supposed supporter of your patients right to make their own choices, you would actually even write an article with this level of bias. People make choices about vaccination for all sorts of valid reasons and I know that I throughly researched vaccination before making mine (including talking to both a health visitor and a GP, one of which was not that in favour of vaccinations themselves). Please don't assume we are all brainless hippies making silly decisions and maybe question what you actually knew about vaccination yourself before you made your decision.
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