your view on vaccinations?

[ranirani]

your view on vaccinations ? what are those? any prons and cons?

That makes perfect sense stroppyknickers as people who don't vaccinate tend to be careful about what illnesses they expose their children to and also about keeping their own children away from others when they are ill. 'Tis part of the responsibility of not vaccinating.

Meningitis can be caused by a number of viruses and bacteria so it is something that anyone is at risk for as it is impossible to vaccinate for all the possible ways of developing the condition. Meningitis is also commonly provoked by vaccination itself (particularly with Hib).

Meningitis is a particularly tricky one for vaccinators due to the ability for bacteria and viruses to change serotype and mutate. This means that whilst effectively a vaccine like the one for Men C will lead to a reduction in the number of Men C cases, an increase in Men B cases will fill the vacumn so the net result is not an actual decrease in meningitis cases if all the groups are taken into consideration. There is plenty of documentation on this.

Forgot to say earlier to Theochris, I completely agree that the media is rubbish at accurately reporting science stuff and that it must be hugely frustrating for anyone involved. One only has to look at the myths and misinformation they have played a major part in spreading about Dr Wakefield.

Whilst I do think that there has been an intentional smearing of Dr Wakefield by some of the press there has also been an awful lot of nonsense written by people who don't seem to have researched their subject independently or for more than about five minutes.

On the other hand Baron-Cohen has actually authored a few articles himself about his work so if they have misrepresented his research and made him look bad then he only has himself to blame.

Sorry hadn't time to post this earlier... I'm in Scotland so keep an eye on this site now and again to see what's on the go round here. I haven't found a similar site for England and Wales but it will exist somewhere:

www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/index.aspx is the Health Protection Scotland site where you can see all the official stats for infection rates, vaccination rates, vaccine failures (yes there sre some admitted to!) and details of which strain/serotype is doing it's worst to the unsuspecting population at large.

Go into the subjects listing and click into the Immunisation and Preventable Diseases area, and Respiratory Infections area and keep going till you find the quarterly surveillance reports. Interesting reading!