One Shot, Two Shots, Three Shots, Four?

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations
by Stephanie Cave, M.D., F. A.A.F.P., Deborah Mitchell

(Page 3 of 4)

It would be nice if we could protect children against all threats of childhood diseases, such as chicken pox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, and polio, in one strategically administered-and completely safe-shot or pill. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In fact, children receive about thirty-three doses of ten vaccinations by the age of five years. Not only do children need a separate vaccine for most diseases (hepatitis B, polio, Hib, and chicken pox are single vaccines; DTaP and MMR are multiple), they also need more than one dose of each vaccine, except for chicken pox if given to a baby (older children need two). The one or more additional doses of a vaccine given to help ensure the protection provided by the original dose(s) are called boosters. Booster doses are given a few months or sometimes years after the original dose. For example, the first three DTaP shots are the original doses given to establish immunity. The next two shots at twelve to eighteen months and at four to six years are boosters, as is the recommended Td (a DTaP shot without pertussis) shot at eleven to twelve years and every ten years thereafter.

Are Boosters Necessary?

To determine whether children need a booster, doctors can check their titers-the measurement of the amount or concentration of a substance in a solution. In the case of vaccines, it refers to the amount of antibodies present in a patient's blood and serum. If a person's antibody titer is high enough to make them immune to specific diseases, they may not need a booster. Unfortunately, doctors don't usually check a person's titers before giving a booster. If the practice of checking titers were put into place, we would probably be able to eliminate some of the boosters now being given to our children, and thus reduce the risk of adverse effects. Parents can consider asking that titers be checked before a booster is given.

Where It Began: A Brief History of Vaccines

Vaccines are not a new idea, although the early forms would not be popular in today's world. One of the first recorded attempts at vaccinelike treatments occurred sometime during the seventh century when a group of Buddhists decided they could become immune to the effects of snake venom by drinking the foul substance. In sixteenth-century China, writings describe how people were inoculated against smallpox by placing the powdered scabs from infected children into the noses of healthy children. These people had the right idea: They realized they could help prevent a disease or condition by exposing themselves to a form of the substance that caused it, but they didn't fully understand what they were doing at the time.

A more scientific approach was used in the late eighteenth century by Edward Jenner, who discovered that inoculating people with the animal disease cowpox made people immune to the deadly human disease smallpox. This was an interesting concept, and fortunately for Jenner it helped save lives, but the use of an animal disease to treat humans also presented the possibility that other diseases could be introduced along with the intended virus. Another approach was needed.

Between the time Jenner published his work in 1798 and Louis Pasteur developed the first rabies vaccine for humans in 1885, several scientists, including Pasteur, were investigating this problem. During that time, Pasteur enhanced the concept of attenuation, which is the use of a weakened form of a virus to provide immunity. Pasteur found that a weakened form of chicken cholera (an attenuated form) was highly effective in preventing the disease. Attenuated vaccines are widely used today.

Protests against the use of vaccines are nothing new. When Pasteur introduced his rabies vaccine for humans in 1885, both doctors and the public rallied against its use. At the turn of the century, British troops fighting in the Boer War in South Africa strongly protested being inoculated against the serious disease typhoid.

Many exciting events and discoveries occurred in the world of vaccines in the decades that followed. Perhaps the biggest boon to the immunization movement was the development of a polio vaccine, one by Jonas Salk and the other by Albert Sabin. The fear of polio by the public was so great that mass immunization with Salk's injectable vaccine beginning in 1955 was welcomed with open arms. Salk's vaccine could not provide complete protection against all three polio viruses, so the introduction of Sabin's live oral vaccine in 1961, which offered broader immunity, quickly became the more commonly used vaccine. The oral vaccine is no longer recommended because it's been proven to cause polio in some recipients and in the close contacts of those recently vaccinated.

History is still being made. New vaccines and new formulations of existing vaccines are being developed all the time.

Copyright © 2001 by Stephanie Cave, M.D.

About the Author

I graduating from LSU with a B.S.in Medical Technology in 1966. I went back to Medical School at age 36 after having three children, fulfilling a dream I had had for years. I graduated in 1983 and completed a residency in Family Practice in 1986. Board certified in Family Practice. My practice was a typical family practice until the last couple of years. I now enjoy integrative medicine and I spend my time mapping out and normalizing chemistry for my patients. In the last 4 to 5 years, I have treated autistic children. My colleague, Dr. Amy Holmes, and I are seeing more than 700 autistic children. This is where the inspiration for the book started. We realized that there is a link between vaccines and the epidemic of autism that we are seeing. I set out to put together a way to give vaccines safely and effectively and the book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations, is the result.

Deborah Mitchell is a medical writer and journalist specializing in complementary medicine and nutrition topics. Her articles have appeared in professional journals, as well as national consumer magazines. She has authored and co-authored eleven books about various health topics, including Natural Healing for Back Pain, The Natural Guide to Headache Relief, The Dictionary of Nutritional Healing, Natural Aphrodisiacs, Natural Medicine for PMS and MSm: The Natural Pain Relief Remedy.