Children required to take Dtap vaccine again. Is it safe?

Does anyone know anything about the Dtap vaccine? The gov says the last one lost its effectiveness. Now they are requiring all children to be re-vaccinated or else they can't attend public school. The nurse at my sons school says there is no exemption at all. Is this true?

edit on 1-6-2014 by djbj597922 because: (no reason given)

a reply to: djbj597922

I am interested in reading more about this, but your link does not appear to be working!

The gov says the last one lost its effectiveness. Now they are requiring all children to be re-vaccinated or else they can't attend public school.

The government has not said anything about losing effectiveness. The DTaP vaccine has always required multiple doses for maximum immunity.

Children should get 5 doses (shots) of the vaccine. One dose should be received at each of the following ages:

2 months
4 months
6 months
15 through 18 months
4 through 6 years

www.nlm.nih.gov...

Are you sure that 'it lost its effectiveness?' or is it just time for another shot?
Kiddos usually get 5 of these vaccines before they enter school, although each state has differing rules for entering school when it comes to immunization.
The vaccination schedule as recommended by CDC is as follows:

Children should get 5 doses of DTaP vaccine, one dose at each of the following ages:

✓2 months

✓4 months

✓6 months

✓15-18 months

✓4-6 years

DTaP may be given at the same time as other vaccines.

CDC

Please don't be fooled by the 'Vaccination is wrong' crowd and have your child vaccinated. If in doubt ask your family doctor, a nurse, or someone who works in the field, and they will echo the same sentiment.

Oh and in case we don't know what the three bacterial diseases that this vaccine fights...

Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis are serious diseases caused by bacteria. Diphtheria and pertussis are spread from person to person. Tetanus enters the body through cuts or wounds.

DIPHTHERIA causes a thick covering in the back of the throat.

It can lead to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure, and even death.

TETANUS (Lockjaw) causes painful tightening of the muscles, usually all over the body.

It can lead to "locking" of the jaw so the victim cannot open his mouth or swallow. Tetanus leads to death in up to 2 out of 10 cases.

PERTUSSIS (Whooping Cough) causes coughing spells so bad that it is hard for infants to eat, drink, or breathe. These spells can last for weeks.

It can lead to pneumonia, seizures (jerking and staring spells), brain damage, and death.

a reply to: MojaveBurning
There wasn't suppose to be a link there. Not sure why that happened. I didn't put it there.

a reply to: Phage

My son is 12 now. I think they are calling this one Tdap.

a reply to: djbj597922

DTaP is not given to children 7 years or older. Two vaccines are available for children 7 years through adulthood. These vaccines are Tdap and Td. Because immunity to diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis wears off, Tdap and Td are used as booster vaccines. The health care provider can tell you more about these vaccines.

www.nlm.nih.gov...

a reply to: djbj597922

From my research there is NO law in ANY state requiring a child to be vaccinated. School officials do have a habit of telling parents that their kids must be vaccinated, and this is either because they are ignorant to the fact that there is no law, or they are lying. Either way, all you have to do, like I just did with my kids here in Virginia, is get a "Religious Exemption Form", and fill it out.

a reply to: djbj597922

That's because you posted in the Breaking News forum. That forum requires a link to your news source. Apparently, since this isn't breaking news, your thread was relocated.

I was sick for a month after getting the Dtap when I cut my thumb. I wasn't actually sick at all, my immune system was reacting to it. Next time I need a tetnus shot I am only getting the DT I don't know why they have to keep combining these things. You have more chance of having an immune reaction when they do.

With the young, it is a little different, they possibly don't have immunity to some things but to give these combos to an adult is crazy.

This particular shot is a biggie. Please do vaccinate your children, especially as pertussis is on the rise again.

My mother, my son and I all had pertussis when kiddo was a little over a year old. It was pure hell. I remember at one point actually thinking I was going to die. Then it leaves you with a terrible cough for six months aftwards.

The doctors told us that the reason we contracted it was because my son had not yet gotten all of his pertussis vaccinations and mine and my mothers were so old that they were no longer effective.

Trust me, neither you nor your children want to go through pertussis. My grandmother nearly died of diphtheria when she was a girl and I have heard that tetanus is agonizing as well.

a reply to: DustbowlDebutante

Yes, Pertussis is on the rise again and guess what...90% of cases had the vaccination.

Here are the stats for the 2012 outbreak in Vermont (only one state.)

Source

Doctors weren't sure about what to do, so what did they come out with, get more vaccinations and even pregnant women should get the Dtap now. lol. We're over-doing it with this crazy vaccination craze going on and that's why they are becoming ineffective. It's all about money for Big Pharma and that's why they are coming up with more and more vaccinations. Look at the measles and mumps outbreaks right now at Ohio university and others places as well, including a few universities here in WI, 75% of those getting the diseases are vaccinated, but the vaccinations aren't working. It was the same with the flu epidemics the past two years. How many were sick with the flu who had just received their shots?

Now, here in WI we have to be concerned about the spread of mumps and measles in the communities because the college kids who've contracted them are coming home for the summer. They will be bringing the spread back home now and we'll see even more cases despite folks having been vaccinated. They aren't working anymore and why is that?

Oh well, let's continue being spoon fed all the government and pharmaceutical BS! We're a bunch of guinea pigs and that's about it. Well, those of you who are religiously following along with these silly overdone vaccination schedules are the guinea pigs. I, for one, am not allowing my children to be over-vaccinated. There were 8 shots given to me as a child, but now there are 36 shots they want to give to children (all before school age)...no thanks!

a reply to: Rezlooper

Yes, Pertussis is on the rise again and guess what...90% of cases had the vaccination.

What's your point?
Maybe it's because so many kids are vaccinated so a lot of the cases are bound to be in vaccinated kids.

What's your point? What about the difference in severity in vaccinated kids vs unvaccinated?

Conclusion. Vaccinated cases of pertussis had decreased morbidity characterized by less severe illness and significantly reduced illness duration.

cid.oxfordjournals.org...


What's your point? What about the effects of not vaccinating kids?

The researchers identified geographic clusters of children who received nonmedical vaccination exemptions to attend kindergarten and compared them with geographic areas where there was an increase in pertussis cases. The researchers found that areas with many unvaccinated children were 2.5 times more likely to have a cluster of pertussis cases than areas with few unvaccinated children.

newsatjama.jama.com...

What's your point? No point in vaccinating because it isn't 100% effective? What would happen if kids weren't getting DTaP? Take two samples of kids. One group vaccinated and one not. What results do you get? Instead of 310 cases you'd get 2,400.

Investigation of the Washington epidemic demonstrates multiple B. pertussis strains causing infection, primarily in vaccinated persons. Given the high transmissibility of B. pertussis, a proportion of vaccinated persons remains susceptible and can become infected during a pertussis outbreak. Unvaccinated children have at least an eightfold greater risk for pertussis than children fully vaccinated with DTaP (7).

www.cdc.gov...



Here's the study talked about in your article, about declining immunity after 11 years old. So I guess we should just forget about younger kids because it wears off anyway.

The purpose of the study was to examine the persistence of immunity provided by DTaP. Only vaccinated children were used in the study. PCR positive children were specifically chosen because of what the study was designed to do. Did 90% of all vaccinated children contract pertussis? No! Want the actual statistics about the efficacy of the vaccination? Here you go:

During the period from January 2010 through June 2011, when 95% of the cases of pertussis in the study population were diagnosed, the incidence of pertussis was 115 cases per 100,000 person-years among members younger than 1 year of age, decreasing to 29 cases per 100,000 person-years at 5 years of age, sharply increasing to 226 cases per 100,000 person-years at 10 and 11 years of age, sharply decreasing until 15 years of age, and remaining low in persons 15 years of age or older (Figure 1Figure 1Annual Rate of Pertussis and Vaccination History in the Entire Health-Plan Population, According to Age, during the Pertussis Outbreak from January 2010 through June 2011.).

The study found that immunity increases during the DTaP vaccination sequence but declines after the fifth dose.
With vaccinated children:
0.1% of those under 1 contracted pertussis
0.03% up to 5 years old
0.2% at 11 years old.
www.nejm.org...=articleTop

They will be bringing the spread back home now and we'll see even more cases despite folks having been vaccinated. They aren't working anymore and why is that?

They aren't? Why do you say that?
www.cdc.gov...

One last note:
news.msn.com...

a reply to: Rezlooper

I really don't think I am over-vaccinating my child. We don't do flu shots. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have bothered giving him the chicken pox vaccine.

I only make him get the vaccinations for life-threatening illnesses. Specifically, the illnesses SO many children used to DIE from. I don't think I'm overreacting by making sure he gets those vaccines.

Both of my grandparents had siblings who died from some of these illnesses and once you have heard your own Granny or PawPaw recount the tales of dead siblings during the Depression, how nothing could be done to save them for lack of transportation and money and how they were simply buried in a grave at the local cemetery with only a large sandstone with some initials and dates scratched into it as a headstone...well, it really stuck with me and has a large bearing on why I choose to vaccinate my child for these illnesses.

Walk through an old cemetery. Try to find one that saw a lot of use during the 1930's or earlier. You will find families buried together. Mom, Dad, and then all the kids. Oftentimes, if the headstones are dated, you will see that many of these kids were all nine months apart and whole families died together from these illnesses. It's sad.

ETA: So 90% of the pertussis cases are in people who have been vaccinated? Maybe that's true, but how OLD were those vaccinations? My mother and I had both been vaccinated, but it had been so long ago that the effectiveness had worn off.

a reply to: Phage

Blah, blah, blah, Phage. I don't have any problem with who gets their children vaccinated, I'm just saying what my opinion about it is and what I choose to do with my own children and no one will have any say about that. BTW, the Dtap was one of the few that I did choose for my children, but only the first couple of doses and they weren't administered until they were two years old.