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INOCULATE page 61

Your parents always
wanted the best for
YOU...

the necessary vaccinations.
Eighty percent of required vac-
cinations are given before the
age of 2; boosters are given
during childhood and adoles-
cence.
Barbara Loe Fisher knows
what the pediatricians say; she
listened to them when her son
was a toddler and went along
with the DPT (diphtheria-
pertussis-tetanus vaccination)
program of four shots before
age 5.
Following the last shot, her

sult almost exclusively of thE
vaccine.
Dr. Singer, a board member
of the American Academy of Pe-,
diatrics, said that in a group o
hundreds of vaccinated children,
one may have trouble reading.
"That doesn't mean that the
vaccine caused that," he said.
Dr. Johnson concurs. In the
years he has practiced as a pe-
diatrician, he has not seen more
than a handful of serious reac-
tions, and no evidence exists
linking vaccines to such serious

son suffered from a fever
and went into shock. Once a
"precociously bright" child who
spoke his first words at 7
months, he was later diagnosed
with learning disabilities, dam-
age Ms. Fisher attributes to the
shot.
"Chris was one of the lucky
ones," she says, pointing to oth-
er cases where children have
suffered brain damage or died
following severe reactions to the
shots.
Her experience propelled her
to write DPT: A Shot In The
Dark and to co-found the Vir-
ginia-based organization Dis-
satisfied Parents Together
(DPT), which operates the Na-
tional Vaccine Information Cen-
ter. The goal of the center and
the group is education for par-
ents and health-care providers,
she said.
"When a medical procedure
carries the possibility of injury
or death, we ought to have in-
formed consent," Ms. Fisher
said. "Parents must be informed
of the risks and then make the
decision for the child."
And those risks, she claims,
are sudden infant death syn-
drome (SIDS), autism, learning
disabilities and death; other chil-
dren come down with the very
illnesses the vaccinations are de-
signed to ward off. She says the
incidence of polio in America in
the past several years is the re-

complications as autism or
SIDS. Often, the parents of,
children who suffer these un-'\
fortunate fates search for an an-
swer.
"As a parent, you would like
to pin it down to something," he
said, "and immunizations are
usually the scapegoat."
Physicians like Drs. Johnson
and Singer hope that educa-
tional efforts recently under-
taken by the state will improve
the compliance rate.
Both have seen a fair number
of children who have suffered
from preventable diseases be-
cause they were not vaccinated.
Each doctor takes the time to
fully educate the parents and
guardians of their patients, es-
pecially those who choose not to
vaccinate their charges.
Sometimes, a parent will
change his or her mind. Elaine
Kahn, for example, is consider-
ing having a tetanus vaccination
given to her son.
"He gets into things, rusty
things, and that is my concern,"
she said.
But for the other parents, the
doctors hope for the best.
"You do your best as a practi-
tioner to make it clear to the par-
ents and guardians of children
that vaccinations are impor-
tant," Dr. Johnson said. "But ul-
timately you have to respect the
wishes of the parent."

Now it's your turn to
give them the best.

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