Barcelona Mum

Questioning Vaccines - Barcelona Metropolitan February 2008 (by Zoe Koumbouzi)

Ours is an age of choice: what car to buy, food to eat, hobby to dedicate ourselves to. It seems logical, then, when it comes to parenting we are also faced with a myriad of choices: breast or bottle, nursery or nanny, public or private. Some of the most difficult issues are centred on health choices for our children, and there is none more controversial than the question of whether or not to vaccinate.

Barcelona has been the birthplace of alternative movements in fields like gastronomy and fashion, and it was here that Spain's largest association dedicated to questioning vacunas (vaccines/immunisations) had its birthplace. La Liga para la Libertad de Vacunaciones (the Free Vaccination League) was founded in 1989. Its aim is to provide free information on the risks of vaccines, and offer a voice for change in the way vaccines are used. The nonprofit association stresses that it is not ‘against' vaccination, just systematic (routine) vaccination. The association's members believe that science still doesn't understand the human immune system, or the adverse effects of vaccines. They call for more studies on side effects, and ask that peoples' requests not to vaccinate themselves or their children be respected. Here in Catalunya, a baby is vaccinated against 11 diseases within the first 18 months of life, all available free from the Seguridad Social. The immunisation schedule begins at two months and lasts through adolesence and into adulthood; it is recommended that everyone get booster shots throughout their lives, especially when travelling to foreign countries. Routine immunisations include tetanus, whooping cough and the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) amongst others. There are also three more optional vaccines for infants that parents must pay for themselves, although there is financial aid for special cases like familias numerosas (large families) or single-parent families.

Choosing not to vaccinate your children is widely deplored in the medical community. “I think the decision not to vaccinate is a selfish position to take,” said Xavier Perramon, a pediatrician at CAP Roger de Flor. “It relies on all the other people who have been vaccinated to protect you against potentially very harmful diseases. We vaccinate to avoid diseases like polio, which, thank God, we just don't see much of anymore. Without vaccines we would have epidemics of diseases that have nearly been eradicated. Luckily, I haven't encountered many people who choose not to vaccinate. When outbreaks do happen, like the cases of measles last year, it's usually because of immigration.”
The health system's official position is clear: the efficacy of vaccines has been clearly proven, they protect individuals and society, and it is important to get babies vaccinated quickly as the first years of life are decisive to future health. But not everyone is so convinced.

Vaccines work by harnessing the body's natural disease-fighting mechanism. Under normal circumstances, when the immune system detects a disease it produces antibodies to protect itself. It then keeps an ‘immunological memory' of the disease so that when it detects the same one in the future, it can produce the right antibodies quickly and fight off the infection. With vaccines, a weakened or partial version of a disease (it can be a bacteria or a virus) is injected, provoking the immune system to make an ‘immunological memory' to protect the body against any future attacks from the ‘real' version.

The Institut Català de Salut considers that, after the provision of clean drinking water, vaccines have saved more lives worldwide than anything else. While Juan Manuel Marin Olmos, a general practitioner, homeopath and historian, agrees with the first claim, he strongly disagrees with the second. Marin believes that his research shows it was not mass vaccination that caused the 20th century's sharp decline in disease, but better living conditions, nutrition and sanitation. In his book, Vacunas Sistematicas en Cuestion (Systematic Vaccines in Question), he uses graphs and statistical data to show how diseases had almost entirely disappeared by the time vaccines began to be used on a mass scale.

Marin told Metropolitan that he became interested in the topic because he felt instinctively that something wasn't right about routine vaccines. He noticed that his vaccinated patients had more diseases associated with ‘hypersensitivity' of the immune system—things like respiratory problems, bronchitis and allergies. He wanted real answers to his patients' questions about vaccines and their efficacy. “I'm trained in science, I need to have answers based on scientific evidence, not just suppositions. I needed to know if something so widely used actually works.”
So why are vaccines used if they don't work? Marin calls it the “mito vacuna” (“vaccination myth), an almost holy belief in vaccines and their ability to protect us against all evil diseases. “I looked at vaccines from a historical perspective and it showed me many things are open to interpretation from the point of view of the historian. I began to see medicine could also be viewed from this perspective. Everyone has their beliefs.”

Marin said there are more intelligent ways of protecting against disease than just handing out packets of vaccines. Apart from good nutrition and general health, he advocated prolonged breastfeeding, avoiding exposure to chemicals when possible and lots of love and emotional support. He collaborates with the Free Vaccination League, and cited a study they did on the health of non-vaccinated adults. “They are healthier, with less allergies than people who had vaccines. They also spent far less on health care, tending to go for natural remedies first and graduate to chemical medicine only when really necessary. Which seems logical, doesn't it?”

As a parent it is hard to keep a level head when phrases like ‘side effects' are being used. Lisa Mitchell explained how she considered the information she got. “I was brought up to question the way things are done, not just accept, and so I also questioned whether vaccinations were necessary. I chose not to vaccinate our daughter. She is very healthy.”

Hers is still an alternative stance, since up to 98 percent of children in Spain are vaccinated. “Sometimes it's hard when the issue comes up with friends who have vaccinated, it makes them feel defensive about their choice,” said Mitchell.
Another mum, Cecelia Tham, chose to vaccinate. “The benefits of vaccinating seemed to outweigh the risks, although the evidence against vaccination is interesting,” said Tham.
Her attitude is common amongst parents: they understand that it is unlikely that their children will contract, much less die from, a disease like measles or whooping cough, yet the fear factor is too great to let them pass up vaccination. Everyone wants to do the best for their children, and both arguments can seem compelling and persuasive.

It is important that clear and trustworthy information be made available to parents, and that will involve some open debate on what is an important public health matter. Such debate has only just begun here, and can be expected to continue.

More info:
In favour of routine immunisation:
- www.gencat.net/ics/germanstrias/
    cas/vacunas.htm
- www.immunisation.nhs.uk
- www.aeped.es (Asociacion Espanola
    de Pediatria/AEP. Search ‘vacunas')
- www.vaccine.org

Against routine immunisation:
- www.vacunacionlibre.org
- www.909shot.com