Carrillo-Marquez Maria, White Lisa
Department of Pediatrics, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, USA.
S D Med. 2013;Spec no:46-51.
As pediatric practitioners, one of the contemporary challenges in providing medical care for children is the increasing proportion of vaccination refusal. This occurs in spite of the demonstrated individual and collective benefit and cost effectiveness of vaccination. Controversies regarding vaccine components and side effects have misled parents to believe that vaccines might be harmful based on inaccurate data from the Internet, celebrities, as well as misinterpreted and frankly bad science. This belief of vaccines being harmful has led to fear and decreased immunization rates in spite of sound scientific evidence supporting the safety of vaccines and their lack of association with autism, developmental disabilities or other medical disorders. Some parents also believe in alternative ways to avoid disease, often adhering to practices that have little foundation in the best of empiric science. It is not a coincidence that recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles and pertussis (whooping cough), have occurred in areas where vaccination has declined largely due to exemptors. This article intends to review some of the common vaccine myths and controversies and to serve as a resource to provide accurate information and references for busy practitioners and the families that we serve.
作为儿科从业者，为儿童提供医疗服务面临的一个当代挑战是拒绝接种疫苗的比例不断上升。尽管疫苗接种已证明具有个体和集体益处以及成本效益，但这种情况仍在发生。关于疫苗成分和副作用的争议误导了家长，使他们基于来自互联网、名人的不准确数据，以及被误解甚至是糟糕的科学依据，认为疫苗可能有害。尽管有可靠的科学证据支持疫苗的安全性，且疫苗与自闭症、发育障碍或其他疾病并无关联，但这种认为疫苗有害的观念还是导致了恐惧情绪并降低了免疫接种率。一些家长还相信通过其他方式来预防疾病，常常坚持一些在最佳实证科学中几乎没有依据的做法。近期包括麻疹和百日咳（小儿咳嗽）在内的可通过疫苗预防的疾病疫情，在很大程度上因豁免者导致疫苗接种率下降的地区爆发，这并非巧合。本文旨在回顾一些常见的疫苗谣言和争议，并为忙碌的从业者以及我们所服务的家庭提供准确信息和参考资料。
