Ever since the successful polio vaccine campaign of the 1950s, we have been the beneficiaries of a safer society. Today immunization programs protect children and adolescents from 16 potentially devastating infectious diseases. As children go back to school, this is a great time to reflect on the current status of the effort to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Most of us are too young to remember polio epidemics and the real fear that children might catch polio in a community or neighborhood swimming pool. Today we see fear on the faces of parents, but this fear is making it more likely we will have epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases in our society -- parents are refusing to immunize their children because of fear generated by special interest groups and media hype suggesting that vaccines cause more harm than good.

It is important for families to trust their pediatricians instead of those who believe, with no scientific evidence, that vaccines cause more harm than good.  If the anti-vaccine trend continues to grow, we will surely have measles, mumps and whooping cough epidemics in our communities, and we will add to the one-quarter million deaths that occur from measles each year in developing countries without access to vaccines. The United Kingdom has already declared measles to be endemic there.

The last large measles epidemic in the United States occurred 19 years ago (55,000 cases, 11,000 hospitalizations, 130 deaths in 1989-1990). Concerns at that time arose about overall immunization rates and the excessive number of children who do not develop immunity after one dose of MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccine. Therefore, the federal government established the Vaccines For Children Program, assuring better access to immunizations for indigent children, and added a second dose of MMR vaccine to the childhood immunization schedule.   

This year, measles has been on the rise in the U.S. with 131 documented cases. Most of these cases are linked to unvaccinated individuals who contracted the virus abroad and spread it among unvaccinated children here. Epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases, causing deaths of unfortunate children, are just a plane ride away.  

Our vaccine safety system is extremely comprehensive. Before vaccines are approved for use in the general population, they undergo years of testing in all eligible age groups and in combination with all other vaccines that might be given at the same time as the newer vaccines. After vaccines are approved by advisory groups that include physicians, government administrators, vaccine scientists and lay citizens, the recipients of vaccines are carefully tracked to assure vaccine safety. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was established in 1986 to compensate children who are possibly the victims of rare and unpredictable vaccine-related illness or injury. If a family refuses the award of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (average award is about $1 million), the family can file a civil lawsuit.

As a practicing pediatrician in Goldsboro, N.C., I have been giving vaccines to children in our community for more than 30 years and have never documented that a single child in our community suffered any permanent illness or injury because of a vaccine. All of my children and grandchildren have received their vaccines according to the nationally recommended schedule endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. My experience mirrors that of the vast majority of pediatricians.

Pediatricians are not afraid of the truth – if we thought that childhood vaccines were injuring our children, we would be the first to work for change in the immunization program. Indeed, there have been no fewer than five significant changes made in the program in the last 15 years, which allowed the immunization system to become even safer.

As we reflect upon the most successful public health programs in the history of mankind, the childhood vaccine program rises immediately to the top. There has never been such a dramatic improvement in public health from any one intervention as was documented during the childhood immunization campaign of the 20th century. Pediatricians want all children to benefit from this outstanding child health program. Please take time to talk with your pediatrician about immunization so you can receive accurate scientific information about the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines and not allow your children to be harmed by vaccine-preventable diseases. Thank you for making sure your children are fully immunized when they go back to school.

Dave Tayloe, Jr., MD, FAAP
President-Elect, American Academy of Pediatrics

August 27, 2008

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.