Miss America's hearing loss
	Measles outbreaks in Washington State
	A mother and child with pertussis
	Some parents believe vaccination scare stories, with deadly results
	A mother's experience with pneumococcal meningitis
	Chickpox claimed the life of my son, Christopher

Heather Whitestone McCallum, Miss America 1995, is deaf. Ms. McCallum had an infection with high fever in 1974, when she was 18 months old. A media item reported that an immunization had caused the fever and subsequent deafness, but this was a false report.

The real cause of her illness, according to Ms. McCallum and her pediatrician, was Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib) infection. She was treated with gentamicin, one of the powerful antibiotic drugs used for this life-threatening infection. Unfortunately, hearing loss is one of the possible side effects of gentamicin, particularly in infants. Deafness is also a common result of Hib meningitis infection.

Had Ms. McCallum been born after 1985, she could have been immunized against the Hib infection and her disability prevented. Hib infections have been reduced by 90% since the vaccine was made available in 1985.

King County Outbreak in 2001

In the first few months of 2001, 12 cases of measles were reported to Public Health - Seattle & King County. This represented the largest outbreak of the disease in Washington State in over a decade. If more people had been unimmunized, this outbreak would have been much more difficult to contain. King County had not reported more than 10 cases of measles since 1991, and fewer than six cases per year had been reported before 2001. The individuals who developed measles ranged in age from 14 months to 39 years.

The outbreak occurred in two distinct geographic areas: (1) Southwest King County, and (2) at a school in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. In Southwest King County, several of the cases attended the same showing of a movie and were likely exposed to measles while at the theatre. The 14-month old was not exposed at the theatre, however her parents reported that they often took her to a mall that was near the theatre. Thereafter, the 39 year-old grandparent of the toddler also developed measles.

The measles outbreak that occurred at the Seattle school was traced to the travels of a student from Korea, a country known at the time to be experiencing a large measles outbreak. Upon returning to school, the unimmunized student fell ill with measles. Three additional students subsequently became infected.

Although all of the individuals who became infected with measles were old enough to have received at least one MMR, three were completely unimmunized. None of the persons younger than 17 years had received the recommended two doses of MMR after their first birthday. Similarly, the adult cases were either unimmunized or had no documentation of having been immunized against measles disease.

Western Washington University

Western Washington University experienced a measles outbreak in February 1995. With 11 confirmed cases, MMR shots were given to over 9,000 students, faculty and staff to provide protection from the disease and its potential complications.

The first case was exposed to measles while vacationing in California. The student returned to campus, became ill, and then exposed others.

Classes and events were canceled to halt the spread of the disease. Students had to show proof of measles immunization in order to attend classes and campus events. Those who chose not to be immunized were not allowed back into classes and campus activities until two weeks after the onset of rash in the last diagnosed case of measles. With quick action, the measles outbreak was controlled.

Clark County

Clark County in southwestern Washington experienced a measles outbreak beginning in March, 1996. The outbreak began when an exchange student, who was infected while overseas, returned to Clark County. Over 30 measles cases were confirmed, eight of whom were children under age three years. Six of the children had never been immunized against measles. This is yet another example of how vulnerable an unimmunized population is, especially during a disease outbreak.

A resident of Snohomish County, Mary has three sons. She got pertussis (whooping cough) a week before the birth of her second child. She caught it from her oldest son's friend, who visited one day with racking coughs. After recognizing the telltale whoop in the cough, Mary discussed the issue with the friend's mother, who indicated she did not believe in immunizations.

Mary was seriously ill for six months and passed the disease on to her newborn son, who was hospitalized with pertussis at one week of age. (The child who originally infected Mary was also seen in the emergency room for pertussis-related seizures.)

"My baby would cough 40 to 50 times in a row until he turned blue and threw up," Mary said. "I quite literally did not let go of him for the first six to nine months because I was afraid he was going to die."

The first five years of his life have been full of bouts with infections and an uncontrollable cough. Many people who had been exposed to Mary and her son had to be treated with antibiotics, because of their increased susceptibility to pertussis - especially young children and those over 60.

The out-of-pocket cost to the family was extraordinary, even though both parents had excellent health insurance coverage. The community cost included many hours of investigation of contacts and the cost of the needed antibiotics...and this was a healthy pregnancy.

A growing number of American families are getting bad - sometimes even fatal - medical advice from the Internet. For Suzanne and Leonard Walther of Murfreesboro, TN, a simple and well-intentioned Internet search turned into their worst nightmare.

The Walthers were looking for information on the safety of vaccines for their new baby, Mary Catherine. What they found were sensational sites dedicated to alarming parents. These sites, short on science and long on inflammatory rhetoric, claim vaccines are linked to just about anything affecting children - allergies, autism, juvenile diabetes and attention deficit disorder. Claims are even made that vaccines are the cause of shaken baby syndrome, the AIDS epidemic and sudden infant death syndrome.

Even though many of the sites are listing misinformation about vaccines without scientific basis, parents concerned about their children are understandably susceptible to such claims. The scare tactics worked with the Walthers, and they decided not to immunize their daughter. It was a choice they lived to regret.

Days before Mary Catherine's first birthday, she was stricken with a form of meningitis that had been nearly eliminated in this country and that could have been prevented by a simple vaccination. Before the vaccine became available in the late 1980s, one in every 20 infected children died from complications related to this disease, and 15 to 20 percent of the survivors suffered permanent brain damage.

Mary Catherine was lucky. She survived, but her ordeal certainly prompted her parents to question health information they find on the Internet.

Tom and Patsy Morris of Columbus, GA, had a similar experience. In their case, it was a news story that drove their decision not to complete their son's series of the pertussis vaccination in the early 1990s. A year later, Nickolas was close to death with whooping cough. He too survived, but the ordeal weighs heavily on his parents, who thought they were making an informed decision based on sound scientific information.

These stories are cautionary tales of a dangerous trend: junk science fueling the fears of well-meaning parents. While the Internet has become an excellent resource for health information, it also grants access to false, misleading and distorted information that can confuse even the most well-educated consumer.

There are few areas where the impact of a health scare can be as devastating as with vaccines. It's easy to be afraid of everyday childhood ailments that almost everyone has seen or heard about. But it's difficult to fear deadly diseases such as "wild" type polio...that most new parents in our country, and many young pediatricians, have never seen. Americans take for granted that these diseases have been eradicated, never to return. Ironically, the global public health and philanthropic communities are spending enormous amounts of money and effort to ensure that underdeveloped countries - where children and adults regularly die from diseases we no longer fear - have access to the vaccines some are urging us to shun. All it takes is well-organized media and Internet scare campaigns to convince some parents not to vaccinate their children. Unfortunately, electing not to vaccinate your child can have long-term consequences that go beyond just your child's illness. Unvaccinated children can collectively rejuvenate long-dormant diseases and trigger lethal epidemics.

The recent measles outbreak in Ireland provides a vivid example of this phenomenon. An isolated study conducted by a Scottish researcher, Andrew Wakefield, and reported in 1998, claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) could be linked to autism. The study has been refuted by further research and has been criticized as being very limited because it used too few cases to make any scientifically valid generalizations about the causes of autism. Only 12 children were included in the study. In addition, there were inadequate groups of control children, and the study did not identify the time period during which the cases were identified.

An expert committee from the U.K. Medical Research Council reviewed this study shortly after its release and concluded that there was no evidence to link the MMR vaccine with autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirm that the vast body of scientific evidence shows no link between autism and vaccines.

Unfortunately, as a result of the momentary loss of confidence in the MMR vaccine, vaccination levels declined, and Dublin experienced a sudden outbreak of measles in epidemic proportions. As of Sept. 30, 2000, Ireland had reported 1,523 cases of measles, including several deaths, as compared to 148 cases for the whole of 1999.

In the United States, nearly everyone had measles before immunization was available. Between 1953 and 1963, 3 to 4 million measles cases and an average of 450 measles-associated deaths were reported each year. In 1999, there were only 86 cases of measles in the United States, and none resulted in death.

Make no mistake: The consequences of ignoring safe and effective immunizations are real and can be lethal. The effort to undermine vaccines seeks to capitalize on a distorted perception of risk. Vaccines on rare occasions do cause side effects. But in the final analysis, vaccines represent infinitely far less risk than the diseases they prevent. As Suzanne Walther said, "I don't want my child to be the one in 3 million" who has a bad reaction to a vaccine. "But I also don't want mine to be the one in 10 that dies if they get the disease. I'd rather take my chances with the one in 3 million than the one in 10."

This article was written by Betty Bumpers and Rosalynn Carter, co-founders of Every Child by Two, an organization promoting early vaccination of children. It is reprinted from the Immunization Action Coalition's "Unprotected People" series.

The following testimony was presented to Washington State legislators in support of continued funding for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

"My name is Kim and I live in Spokane, Washington. I have 3 young daughters, Amanda, 10; Cassie, 8; and Maddy, 6. When Maddy was 2 1/2 months old she contracted pneumoccocal meningitis.

That morning she had been very lethargic and I could not get her to nurse. I called our doctor's office and told them her symptoms. I was told to come in mid-morning. By 10:00, she was moaning as I lifted her in or out of her car seat. This seemed strange and confusing. I took her to the appointment and seemed to get right in to be seen. The nurse took her vitals, and said, "I don't like the way she is moaning". The doctor came in, touched the top of her head, left the room, quickly came back and said, "I think she has meningitis and I have an ambulance coming to take you to the hospital."

Wow, what a whirlwind after that. A trip in the ambulance, having her given oxygen, she was having seizures. They quickly took her away to a room and immediately started doing tests. She was whisked away to have a spinal tap. We were told that they were going to be giving her high doses of different antibiotics to try to control whatever she had. It was 3 days before they knew for sure that she in fact had meningitis. Our poor little baby, 2 1/2 mo old, lay in that bed, with ART lines in her chest and groin, on a respirator, IVs, and she had to have a blood transfusion. She stayed in that hospital for 12 days. Twelve long sleepless nights of waiting, hoping, and praying for her to get better and strong enough to go home.

Two days after she was released from the hospital, we went to the follow-up with her pediatrician. That is where we learned that she was deaf. The results of the ABR test done in the hospital showed no signs of hearing. That was the start of the journey that we are on now. Physical therapy to strengthen her muscles, sign language classes and speech therapy 4 days a week for communication needs.

Maddy now has the Clarion cochlear implant and is doing very well. She is mainstreamed into kindergarten with an interpreter and continues speech therapy 4 days a week. There are many times we stop and think of what Maddy's life would be like had she not gotten meningitis. The emotion, stress, and cost of education and rehab have been very high. I speak to your hearts to please allow all children access to this vital vaccine. If it can prevent other families from going through what we have gone through, it is worth it 100%."

Reprinted below is the testimony of Rebecca Cole, presented to the US House of Representatives at the August 3, 1999 Congressional Hearing on vaccine safety. Excerpted from the Immunization Action Coaliton "Unprotected People" series.

"My name is Rebecca Cole, and I am the mother of five children. I am not a doctor and cannot give medical advice, but I can share my personal experience with you.

I have faced the worst nightmare any parent can possibly face. There is no experience on earth that compares to the horror and devastation of losing a child. It is shattered dreams, crushed wishes, and a future that suddenly vanishes before our eyes. It cannot be wished away, slept away, prayed away, or screamed away. It is darkness, agony, and shock. It leaves our hearts broken, bleeding, and bursting with pain, and it changes us forever.

My life changed forever on June 30, 1988, when I had to stand by helplessly as an infectious disease claimed the life of my oldest child, Christopher Aaron Chinnes, at the age of 12. Christopher was a beautiful little boy who had light blonde hair and deep, brown eyes. He was full of compassion, joy, and energy. He loved baseball, and every living creature on the earth. He wanted to be a scientist or doctor. I can honestly say that my son was one of the most beautiful human beings I have ever known, and I am proud to have been his mother.

Christopher was born a very healthy child, but at the age of eight he developed asthma. It was never a problem for him, and it never kept him from doing the things he loved. But on June 16, 1988, four years after he was diagnosed, he suffered his first and only severe asthma attack. He had to be hospitalized and was treated with all of the normally prescribed drugs, including corticosteroids (anti-inflammatory drugs used in asthma, arthritis, allergies, etc.). He was released four days later with several medications to finish at home, and he was well on his way to recovery.

On June 23, exactly one week after the asthma attack, he broke out with the chickenpox. "Don’t worry, you’ll get over it," I told him.

What I didn't know was that the corticosteroid had lowered his body's immune response and he could not fight the disease. The chickenpox began to rampage wildly through his young body. As I drove him to the emergency room on June 27, my four younger children watched silently in shock and horror as their brother went into seizures, went blind, turned gray, and collapsed due to hemorrhaging in his brain.

That afternoon Christopher was flown from Camp Lejuene's Naval Hospital to East Carolina University’s Medical Center, but the chickenpox was uncontrollably sweeping through him like a wildfire, and there was nothing anyone could do. The next day Christopher suffered a cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma.

As my beautiful little boy lay swollen beyond recognition and hemorrhaging from every area imaginable, including out into the blisters on his skin, I learned that a vaccine existed, but was not yet licensed by the FDA. A vaccine that could have prevented the unimaginable suffering of my child, and all who knew him.

On June 30, 1988, exactly one week after breaking out with chickenpox, Christopher passed away. He died. He wasn’t injured. He wasn’t left acting differently. He wasn’t crippled. He died. My priceless little boy lay on a cold steel table, swollen beyond recognition, cold, and dead. Gone from me. Gone from life itself. I cannot hold him, kiss him, see his smile, or listen to his laughter as he chases a ball or bullfrog. Instead, I visit a grave. The chickenpox virus destroyed every organ in his body, and it cut pieces from the hearts of everyone who witnessed its devastation.

No one is sure just what dose of corticosteroid it takes to lower an individual's resistance, and most people on these valuable drugs do well when they get the chickenpox. Without knowing for sure though, who would want to take a chance. Do not take anyone off of corticosteroids suddenly! The drug has to be withdrawn slowly. Consult your doctor for more information, and don't get scared, be informed.

Please don't get the impression that only those who are immunosuppressed can have problems with chickenpox. Anyone can. In fact about half of those who suffer complications or die each year are normal healthy people.

Vaccines prevent countless deaths each year. Without them the number of valuable human beings we'd lose would be staggering. We have and will not ever reach perfection. We must remember that the benefits of our vaccines far outweigh the risks. Especially for those who are ill or immunosuppressed like Christopher was. There are innocent children and adults who come in contact with the public everyday who would die if they were exposed to the diseases we can prevent. If everyone around them is vaccinated, they are also protected. We owe it to them and to ourselves as a nation to achieve the highest level of protection possible.

We must win the worldwide war against infectious disease, and vaccines are our most powerful weapons. We cannot win, however, if we do not use them. Leaving any population unprotected is like surrendering to a defeatable foe. We must never surrender!"