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Mountain State Centers for Independent Living says: Support mandatory immunizations!
Success! Our phone calls, letters, and emails were effective in stopping the Immunization bill.
Delegate Barbara Hatfield expressed her appreciation to Mountain State Centers for Independent Living's staff, Web site, fact sheets, phone calls, emails and letters that helped to stop this bill in committee.
Delegate Hatfield said, "Thank you, I couldn't have done this without you"
Mountain State Centers for Independent Living thanks all of you who supported mandatory immunizations.
The viruses and bacteria that cause vaccine-preventable disease and death still exist. They have not disappeared. Use of vaccines has dramatically reduced the number of people who get infectious diseases and the complications these diseases produce. Without the protection of vaccines, epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases would return, resulting in increased illness, disability and death. Such diseases have a costly impact on our lives and come at great expense to our tax dollars.
Right now there are groups speaking with our Delegates and Senators to pass this bill. Their stand on this issue comes from the 1960's when vaccines were made from human cell-line cultures. In other words, an aborted fetus was used to make the vaccines that we so trust today as well as then. That is no longer the case today.
We no longer rely on the fetus for vaccine purposes. The fetal tissue is not used to produce vaccines, but cell line generated from a single fetal tissue source. Today vaccine manufacturers obtain human cell lines from FDA-certified cell banks.
Contact legislators and urge them to support mandatory immunizations. Particularly, please contact members of the Senate Health and Human Resources that include:
You can call 877-565-3447 to leave a message with legislators. Emails and letters are equally important. Please follow the links for contact information for Delegates and contact information for Senators.
Please support mandatory immunizations. Mandatory immunizations are the most important strategy in the prevention of infectious diseases in children. The consequences of ignoring safe and effective immunizations are real and can be lethal. The effort to undermine vaccines seeks to capitalize on a distorted perception of risk. Vaccines on rare occasions do cause side effects. But in the final analysis, vaccines represent infinitely far less risk than the diseases they prevent. Religious and/or philosophic exemptions from immunization endanger not only the health of the unvaccinated individual, but also the health of those in his or her group and the community at large.
We urge you to help protect our children and our future. Vaccines are highly cost effective. For every $1 spent on measles, mumps, rubella, vaccine, the US saves $21 by preventing these diseases. I urge you to Vote NO on SB 523.
Vaccines are one of history's most successful and cost-effective public health tools for preventing serious disease and death. The goals of immunization is eradication of disease and prevention of diseases in individuals or groups. Vaccines benefit both the people who receive them and the vulnerable, unvaccinated people around them because infection can no longer spread. Vaccines not only protect vaccinated individuals from developing potentially serious diseases, they also help protect entire communities by preventing and reducing te spread of infectious agents.
Although children receive the majority of the vaccinations, adults need to stay up-to-date on certain vaccinations, particularly tetanus and diphtheria. In addition there are adults who have never had chicken pox or measles during childhood nor the vaccines against these specific diseases. Childhood illnesses such as mumps, measles and chicken pox can cause serious complications in adults. Without necessary immunizations we cannot protect our children or the lives of other children and others from disease or disability.
The American Medical Association:
Religious and/or philosophic exemptions from immunization endanger not only the health of the unvaccinated individual, but also the health of those in his or her group and the community at large. Polio virus causes acute paralysis that can lead to permanent physical disability and even death. Before polio vaccine was available, 13,000 to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported each year in the US. These annual epidemics of polio often left thousands of victims - mostly children - in braces, crutches, wheelchairs and iron lungs - LIFE LONG effects. If we were to discontinue polio vaccinations in the US, immunity to polio would decline, leading to the risk of polio epidemics similar to those that occurred in the past.
Measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world and is frequently imported into the US. Before measles immunizations were available, nearly everyone in the US got measles. An average of 450 measles-associated deaths were reported each year between 1953 and 1963. In the US up to 20% of persons with measles are hospitalized. As many as three of every 1,000 persons with measles will die in the US. In the developing world, the rate is much higher, with death occurring in about one of every 100 people. In the period of 1997-2000, most cases were associated with international visitors of US residents who were exposed to the measles virus while traveling abroad. More than 90% of people who are not immune will get measles if they are exposed to the virus. If vaccinations were stopped, each year about 2.7 million measles deaths worldwide could be expected.
Pertussis (whooping cough) can be a severe illness, resulting in prolonged coughing and vomiting spells that can last for weeks. These spells make it difficult for children to eat, drink, and breathe. In infants, it can also cause pneumonia and lead to brain damage, seizures and mental retardation. Since the early 1980's, reported pertussis cases have been increasing, with peaks every 3-4 years; however, the number of reported cases remains much lower than levels seen in the pre-vaccine era. From 1990 to 1996, 57 persons died from pertussis; 49 of these were less than 6 months old. Pertussis cases occur throughout the world. If we stopped pertussis immunizations in the USA, we would experience a massive resurgence of pertussis disease. A recent study found that in 8 countries where immunization coverage was reduced, incidence rates of pertussis surged to 10 to 100 times the rates in countries where vaccination rates were sustained.
While Rubella (German Measles) is usually mild in children and adults, up to 90% of infants born to mothers infected with rubella during the first trimester of pregnancy will develop congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) resulting in heart defects, cataracts, mental retardation and deafness. In 1964-65, before rubella immunization was used routinely in the US, there was a rubella epidemic that resulted in an estimated 20,000 infants born with CRS, with 2100 neonatal deaths, and 11,250 miscarriages. Of the 20,000 infants born with CRS, 11,600 were deaf, 3,580 were blind, and 1,800 were mentally retarded. Since 1996, greater than 50% of the reported rubella cases have been among adults. Since 1999, there have been 40 pregnant women infected with rubella. If we stopped rubella immunization, immunity to rubella would decline and rubella would once again return, resulting in pregnant women becoming infected with rubella and then giving birth to infants with CRS.
More than 2 billion persons worldwide have been infected with the hepatitis B virus at some time in their lives. Of these, 350 million are life-long carriers of the disease and can transmit the virus to others. One million of these people die each year from liver disease and liver cancer. National studies have shown that about 12.5 million Americans have been infected with hepatitis B virus at some point in their lifetime. Approximately 1.25 million Americans are estimated to have chronic (long-lasting) infection, of whom 20% to 30% acquired their infection in childhood. The number of new infections has declined from an average of 450,000 in the 1980's to about 80,000 in 1999. The greatest decline has occurred among children and adolescents due to routine hepatitis B vaccination. Approximately 25% of children who become infected with life-long hepatitis B virus would be expected to die of related liver disease as adults. If we were to discontinue immunization, it is estimated that more than 45,000 children would become infected.
Before Hib vaccine became available, Hib meningitis killed 600 children each year, and left many survivors with deafness, seizures or mental retardation. Since introduction of conjugate Hib vaccine in December 1987, the incidence of Hib has declined by 98%. This preventable disease was still a common, devastating illness as recently as 1990; now, mot pediatricians just finishing training have never seen a case. If we were to discontinue immunization, we would likely soon return to the pre-vaccine numbers of invasive Hib disease cases and deaths.
Clearly, the critical issue is whether some parents should be allowed to place other people's children at increased risk for disease by refusing immunizations for their own children. Vaccines still remain the most important strategy in the prevention of infectious diseases in children.
The consequences of ignoring safe and effective immunizations are real and can be lethal. The effort to undermine vaccines seeks to capitalize on a distorted perception of risk. Vaccines on rare occasions do cause side effects. But in the final analysis, vaccines represent infinitely far less risk than the diseases they prevent.
As one mother said, "I don't want my child to be the one in 3 million" who has a bad reaction to a vaccine. "But I also don't want mine to be the one in 10 that dies if they get the disease. I'd rather take my chances with the one in 3 million than the one in 10."
Please help protect OUR children and OUR future. Vaccines are highly cost effective. For every $1 spent on measles, mumps, rubella, vaccine, the US saves $21 by preventing these diseases.
For more information on our Legislative agenda or MTSTCIL, please contact the Mountain State Center nearest you:
Updated: April 25, 2005
www.mtstcil.org
