Saturday, July 20, 2013

Vaccination and no b*tch on earth like a mother that frightened for her kids.


I'm not a mother. I'm not even married yet, but I'm an aunt to three beautiful  babies ( my 8 year-old- niece is not considered as a baby anymore, I guess) and another two are coming soon. My sister who just gave birth to my nephew 6 months ago (is it 6 or 8 months ago? hee), is easily influenced by what she reads on internet especially those misguided 'information' about vaccination and how it links to autism. It's a hot issue nowadays. I don't blame her like Stephen King said, 'there's no bi*ch on earth like a mother that frightened for her kids'. All mothers, I believe, would do anything for their kids. Hello, they carry the child for 9 months with all the stretch marks on their bodies and have to endure excruciating labor pain that no men can imagine, of course, they would be very worry if a single jab on their babies' bum will lead to something nasty.

I heard about immunization and autism when I was  in my 2nd year learning my bum off about immunity . Man, the paper was so hard. Anyway, one of my lecturers showed us 'The Lancet' study. In case you don't know, it was a study in 1998 showing there is a link between administration of MMR vaccine and development of autism and bowel disease which to be more specific, colitis. It is somehow considered as fraudulent research publication in which the theory ( the link between MMR vaccine to autism and colitis) is discredited. So, mothers, the research is not reliable at all.

Some parents,however, are still reluctant to vaccinate their babies and opt for alternative medicine.  Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people who practise or believe in perubatan tradisional or alternative medicine.  Yes, some may work but you have no idea how many alternative medicine treated kids are eventually end up in hospital. I definitely respect all those parents who actually read and dig in all those research paper related to their child's health (as a medical student I still find reading research papers is emm... well, deadly boring and most of the times they are my 'sleeping pills'). It is great to know that Malaysians read research papers because it shows that our people will not just accept things blindly. However, it is better to refer to someone who knows this area inside out and in this case, the paeds or doctors. Even in Islam we are taught to 'bertanya padanya yang alim', right?Don't treat any doctors as your enemy and Mr.Google is your new GP. Not all research papers that you can easily find on google are valid . My sister showed me what some people claimed as a 'medical research paper' before and it is really shocking how some people use words 'medical' and 'research' for such a writing. I would be glad if all research papers are that simple and only have a few references (which also come from the same author.-.-') because it would make our research projects so much easier to do and everyone can easily become a professor. No, medical research is not that simple.

Well, I think this is the time for the doctors to be 'nearer' and 'reachable' by people to clear all the misconceptions just like what doktorbudak.com for. It is a great website by a group of peadiatricians who provide an online medium for parents to ask any questions regarding child healthcare.

emm..I guess something pedagogical on my blog,finally. hahaha




p.s: There you go Dr. F. I hope I convey the right message just like what you want. :)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I will ask my sister to read this later. She just gave birth to her first baby and seems very reluctant to vaccinate her baby after so many rumors about it.

love your blog. (;

NA said...

Thank you. this entry is not really informative. you can go to doktorbudak.com to know more about this issue,though. :)