To ask if you're NOT vaccinating against Meningitis B what are your reasons?

[DreamCloud99]

Non judgey.

Ours is simply cost - we have twins and can't afford it .

I see it as every parents choice, as does the NHS and the government. It's a matter of weighing up pros and cons, family history, personal experiences and doing what's right for your family - and in a lot of cases, taking on medical advice. Some people are advised not to have them, it's fact, so blanket statements about people ignoring medical advice aren't appropriate. Our medical advice was not to have them and I'm happy with that, there have been no childhood illnesses other than mild chickenpox for me, my siblings or my son, so there has been nothing to make me regret the choice. Of course the story may be totally different for others, but that's my point it's a totally individual decision but one that other people seem to think they can make for you.

He may be in the low risk bracket now, but he's not zero risk and the risk increases again when they're teens. Please, if you can afford to have it done then do.

Yes the risk of your child contracting meningitis is low, but if they do contract it it hits fast and it hits hard and the results are devastating.

Gertrudemoo you don't think that there is any chance that the reason 97% of cases are isolated has something to do with the fact most of us vaccinate...?!?

Facepalming, do you understand what "isolated with no links to any other cases" means? The only people who are likely to catch it from another person are people sharing immediate breathing space or kissing. It's not a virus.

Bertrand as I've said above, my gp was great as was my health visitor. There is a documented heightened risk of encephalitis for some children, which is available in NHS documentation and also CDC documentation in the US. The most serious consequence of some of the childhood illnesses, including meningitis, is encephalitis. So the balance of risk between chance of adverse vaccine reaction in identified children causing encephalitis and contracting childhood illness which results in encephalitis has to be weighed up. It's a fact that some people are advised not to have them.

You have to be really, really wilfully ignorant to expect anything to be totally safe.

What you need to be able to do is assess risk. For the vast majority, it is much less risky to have the vaccination.

I had a spectacular reaction to measles jab. I seem to have been left with damage to the area of my brain that should be patient with fuckwits.

Exactly in a nutshell Bifswif

Gertrudemoo I don't think you are understanding.

Using your own quotes stat:

97% of cases aren't caught from someone else, 3% are.

If people didn't vaccinate it would be very likely more than 3% of cases would be caught from others

to those who say it's personal choice well it just isn't!

If you don't vaccinate your child they put everyone else's children at risk too.

there has been a rise in anti vaxxers because the perceived risk of catching these diseases is low - buy it's low because of vaccinations!!

specialSubject - that side effect is a bummer isn't it?!

I'm facepalming again, Facepalm!

Is the vaccine effective for life ?

My son was born 10 weeks before the cut off but I had read about the Men B vaccine in the news prior to his birth so had already decided to get him vaccinated privately as I didn't like the idea of kids in his class at school being immunised and he wouldn't have been. The publicity came along a few months before he was due the booster and thankfully the private doctor's surgery honoured clients who had already started the course of vaccines. When we went in the doctor said the waiting list had 1000 names on it and he had to get the vaccine in from Germany. They also put their prices up for new clients. I also wouldn't have been able to live with myself if he had contracted it as when I added up the cost of all my handbags it was double the price of the vaccine so I couldn't justify not getting it done

If people didn't vaccinate it would be very likely more than 3% of cases would be caught from others

Facepalming, how?

THe GP who advised your parents was probably basing their opinon on the information available at that time, but this was probably some time ago now. The research I can find says that some children with a certian syndrome indeed have a higher risk of encephalopathy from febrile seizures, but this would be caused by any fever and is not specifically linked to vaccines.

Historically, there were a group of children that were thought to have severe FS and encephalopathy from vaccine induced FS. The children presented with a first FS after vaccination and developed encephalopathy and recurrent seizures, but it is known that this subgroup have a genetic sodium channel mutation that causes a susceptibility to severe seizures and encephalopathy. The FS is commonly the first manifestation of the sodium channel mutation known as Dravet syndrome, but any febrile illness could cause the first seizure in a genetically susceptible individual.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4220240/

Of course there are children for whom being vaccinated is not the right choice. But I would have to disagree that this is purely an individual choice and nobody else's business. It's a public health issue, herd immunity thanks to our vaccinated children only protects the individual choosers (and our yet to be vaccinated babies) until there are not too many of them.

As an aside - is it true the vaccine contains e.coli and aluminium ?

Vaccines are made with all sorts of things, some of them the actual active ingredient and others are things like preservatives.

Being made with doesn't mean the same as 'contains' - eg my friend makes soap, he makes one for me to help with my psoriasis. It is made with lard and caustic soda - yep that's drain cleaner, stuff you probably wear gloves to drop down a drain, but the chemical process changes it to soap.

Another example, the salt you use to season food and put down to melt ice - it's chemical name is sodium chloride - it isn't sodium, it isn't chlorine, it is a compound of them that is a different substance. Sodium is so volatile it like to combust, chlorine is the gas that was used as a weapon in WWI - two things you would not want your child to be exposed to, but combined as a compound is salt - something I bet you have in your cupboard.

So when you see 'aluminium' as an ingredient there are two questions to ask;

1. is it really aluminium or is it a compound made with it? (In a list of ingredients you would need to see 'aluminium, ' if you see ;aluminium Xide/Xate/Xide,' then it is not aluminium - look for the comma)

2. is exposure to the small amount of aluminium (or compound) damaging?

For aluminium - well if you use a metal pan to cook (obviously unless it is cast iron or something else) or use foil i the kitchen you are exposing yourself and children to tiny amounts that are not harmful.

Andro And that is a good reason to either not vax or use an alter schedule. I fully support people who have good reasons such as this.

The 'It's all a conspiracy - big pharma - money' - well governments actually pay companies to research and in some cases produce vaccines, not because they are good altruistic people but because it is cheaper to have a health population.

Katharina thank you, it was along those lines, although these weren't vaccine induced febrile seizures as there was no vaccine in the first place. This was the potential risk to children already known to have febrile convulsions from tiny baby stage. It was to do with the reaction of the immune system to any assault being a bit bonkers and resulting in the convulsions, so the concern was that the response to the vaccine may cause something similar.

Sashh - totally irrelevant, but your psoriasis soap description gave me Fight Club hand burn images

My six month old had all his vaccinations including menB. We are taking my 3 year old to have his first dose tonight at Boots.

For the person earlier who asked about side effects - here is the vaccine insert it lists side effects. As someone said earlier, there weren't enough patients in the clinical trials to assess the risk of rare adverse events (commented on in the JCVI paper linked to earlier)

No, the vaccine doesn't last for life. Iirc it was somewhere between 2-4 years and the 4 different strains in the vaccine wane at different rates. I have linked to a couple of papers on it before so I'm sure I can find them again later.

Gertrudemoo the opportunity to catch meningitis is less in a population where many are vaccinated, so of course the % of those who contracted meningitis from someone else will be lower than in a population where no one is vaccinated.

I can't afford to have all 3 kids vaccinated against it.
simple as that, really

There was no choice to make, given the choice I'd have all 3 done but when there's no money for it there's no choice

Here's one of the papers I mentioned discussing the persistence of antibodies.

facepalming, many of the population aren't vaccinated against Meningitis and certainly not against MenB which has only been licensed in the last few years. Certain strains are more contagious as others but they aren't on par with things like cold and flu viruses - it usually requires prolonged/close contact.

A friend of mine had a grandson who developed meningitis during his first term at university and died. A terrible loss of a young life. The vaccine for Meningococcal Group W is available to 17 and 18 year olds who apparently are particularly susceptible.it seems that is an essential vaccination to me.
When my own sons were small they had all the vaccinations going, except BCG, which we were advised against by GP due to allergies and the second Measles, I thought the additional immunity was not high enough to warrant this. I suffered a miscarriage as a result of contacting Chicken Pox from DS1, I think vaccination for this should be free and included in the programme.

The ACWY vaccine is being offered to 14 year olds (replacing menC booster) and there's a catch up program for first time students up to age 25.

Enjoying this thread, some interesting facts and opinions.

As an aside, I'm currently reading this book

the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks which is astounding. It's thanks to her the polio vaccine was invented. I'm 35 but have two good friends, in their late 60's, who are wheelchair bound and have suffered a lifetime of operations because of Polio.

I agree when the majority of health care workers and scientists are pro-vaccinations, I'm with them.

Anecdotally, the very rare strain of bacterial meningitis I contracted was believed to have come from the oral flora of the anaesthetist who was doing a spinal block for my c-section. There is no vaccine for this strain, which accounts for between 0.3-2.4% of cases. I was just super unlucky (or lucky, in that I was in hospital and apart from a week in a coma and short-term memory loss, I'm fine).

facepalming

But with men b the vaccination has only recently been introduced, so, the 97% figure would be against the background of a largely unvaccinated population. Assuming it's men b being talked about and not the other forms of men.

Oh fucking hell YWurri, that's awful!!