Friday, April 25, 2008

Why I opted for the Pc vaccine.

"The Natural Mommie" has a pretty good post about what the Pc vaccine is so I won't detail it again here. Simply it's a baterium that can cause meningitis.

My original plan was to get the HIB and not Pc. But after some thinking I decided to get the Pc instead of the HIB early. There are several reasons.

1. I'm traveling soon and will be in contact w/ people. In Asia, where we're traveling, the diseases is pretty endemic AND it's the breeding ground for antibiotics resistant strains.

2. The symptoms are common cold symptoms. A lot of times it can be too late by the time you realize it's something worse.

3. It's still quite common in other parts of the world as it's a pretty new vaccine. We're planning to travel to other countries before Thumper's 2. There is a website out there w/ people's stories of their children dying from the disease. After reading the stories, I decided I didn't really want to take that chance, esp since: (see #4)

4. There are lots of strains that are antibiotics resistant. Getting this vaccine will expose the child to the bacteria. Way better than them getting really sick and then having the antibiotics not work.

5. Though the vaccine only treats 7 strains out of the many out there, it also does a partial coverage for another 5.

One thing I think people don't think about when they do delayed schedule is that if your child gets really sick from the disease, you will end up going to the hospital and get lots of antibiotics, plus IV. IV also has aluminum in it! So you may think you're avoiding aluminum by not getting the vaccine, but then if your child gets really sick then they'll be exposed to it. I would have to read up on what the dosage is on IVs, but I don't think it's a good trade-off. You get aluminum either way, plus the possibility of your child dying, and endless worrying on your end.

And you also get drugs in the child's body. I don't like drugs in children in general. And since Pc is more likely to occur in children than HIB, I opted to get this vaccine.

3 comments:

A said...

Do adults need it too?

A said...

Do adults need the vaccine too?

Smurfette said...

do you get the replies to these messages?

Anyways, no you don't. Pc is only a big deal for kids under 2. It's a very common thing but it just has a big effect on people under 2.