04 Sep (IPS) – Measles infections are currently rising sharply, with epidemiologists reporting an increase in the number of large or disruptive outbreaks. tripled in the last three years. It is one of the most contagious diseases known. The virus spreads through respiratory droplets; when an infected person coughs or sneezes, it can remain in the air for up to two hours and infect 10 others who are not immune.
Most of the estimated 136,000 people who died from measles infections in 2022 were children under the age of five. Every death is a tragedy, but it hurts even more when those deaths could have been prevented with a safe and effective vaccine.
As a pediatrician, I am proud to be involved in vaccines because of their impact on public health. Vaccination is responsible for 40% of the observed decline in global child mortality; it is one of the most remarkable achievements in modern medicine.
Vaccinations against measles alone have prevented 57 million deaths since 2000. But this success does not depend solely on the development of effective vaccines; they must be accessible to everyone.
I grew up in Colombia, in a time and place where vaccines were not as common or accessible, and I went to medical school there, but unfortunately I saw children get sick and die from diseases that vaccines could prevent. I even had some of these diseases as a child. And so I celebrate every time my children get vaccinated (even though they don’t).
Not all parents come from this background and I understand that making decisions that impact your child’s health can be intimidating.
My work in vaccine safety also provides insight into the research behind these shots. Each vaccine undergoes rigorous testing in clinical trials, continuous monitoring for adverse events, and adherence to strict regulatory standards. There is also strict safety monitoring and data surveillance that is conducted not only by drug developers, but also by national health authorities in each country.
With vaccines, we closely monitor safety and reactogenicity: the ability of a vaccine to cause common, short-lived side effects that are typically mild and self-limiting and usually indicate an immune response, such as pain at the injection site, fever, or fatigue.
We ask clinical trial participants to report daily if they have experienced any of these symptoms, how long they lasted, and how severe they were. This information helps inform future vaccine recipients about what to expect. If the reactogenicity is too high and unacceptable, this may be a reason to stop the clinical trial and reevaluate what needs to be changed to continue development of that vaccine.
In terms of safety, all adverse events experienced by a participant during a trial are carefully evaluated and analyzed to identify which of these adverse events may be related to the vaccine. We ask participants to report all signs and symptoms they experienced during the trial, regardless of whether they believe they are related to the vaccine or not.
Typically, a trial involves participants who receive the actual vaccine and others who receive a placebo. This means that the study is “blinded” and neither the participants nor the trial staff and researchers know who is getting the vaccine or the placebo until the data is evaluated. This helps us better determine whether side effects are related to the vaccine.
Globally, just under three-quarters of all children under two years of age have received both doses of a measles vaccine, while at least 95% is needed to prevent outbreaks. Worse still, an estimated 14.5 million children have not received a single dose of a vaccine.
There are many unfortunate reasons why, including impoverished communities who lack access to adequate health care and displaced populations who have been forced from their homes. It’s not just caused by people who are skeptical about the value of vaccines; these individuals had a choice to protect their children and their communities, and they chose not to.
The stakes are clear, and it’s not just measles. Wild poliovirus infections have declined 99% since 1988, from 350,000 cases to 6 in 2021.
However, the disease is still present as vaccination rates are still high at the moment. average 83%are good, but not great, with too much geographic variation for a disease that is exceptionally contagious and can cause irreversible paralysis.
Pertussis, or whooping cough, is another infectious disease with a significant mortality rate among infants, but it is not as closely monitored. The last year that WHO has complete data is 2018, when more than 151,000 infections were catalogued. In 2023 an estimated 84% of infants Around the world, children received the recommended three doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine, but low-income countries lagged behind wealthier countries when it came to vaccinating their children.
When you care for the health and well-being of a child, you care for the future of an entire community. And when that child can grow and learn without the threat of disease, the future of both the child and the community is greatly improved. That is our goal.
Every parent’s decision to vaccinate their child plays a role, along with every program and initiative that makes that decision accessible and effective. Achieving herd immunity is paramount, where disease cannot take hold in a community because nearly everyone is vaccinated. Only high vaccination rates will make this future possible.
Daniela Ramirez SchremppMD, is a medical leader in pharmacovigilance at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service