Vim & Vigor - Summer 2020 - CH - 38

Fact or Fiction

Working
Together for
a Lifetime of
Protection

THE TRUTH ABOUT

Vaccines

IMMUNIZATIONS PROTECT YOU AND
OTHERS FROM DEBILITATING DISEASES

BY KARI REDFIELD

Despite misinformation
campaigns targeting
vaccination, vaccines are
proven to protect individuals and
whole communities against many
dangerous communicable diseases
as well as unnecessary hospitalization, suffering, disability and death.
"When one looks at the advances
of medical care in the last 100
years, there are a couple of major
interventions that have saved millions of lives. One is sanitation,
and the other is immunizations,"
says Robert McLean, MD, president of the American College
of Physicians.
An example of the benefits of
widespread vaccination is the
nearly worldwide eradication of
polio, once one of the most feared
diseases. In 1952, at the peak of the
outbreak in the U.S., polio infected
more than 57,000 children, causing
permanent paralysis, disability
and death. By 1955, nationwide
polio vaccinations began, and by
the 1960s there were fewer than
50 reported cases annually.
Maintaining progress against preventable diseases means following
vaccine recommendations for both
children and adults, McLean says.
Here's what you need to know.

Vaccinations do not
cause autism.

FACT. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention says there

is no link between vaccines and
autism. Vaccine ingredients,
including thimerosal, a mercurybased preservative, do not cause
autism or autism spectrum disorder, also known as ASD. The CDC
has conducted or funded nine
studies on this since 2003, finding
"no link between thimerosalcontaining vaccines and ASD,
as well as no link between the
measles, mumps and rubella
(MMR) vaccine and ASD."

Before recent outbreaks,
measles was eliminated
in the U.S.

FACT. Measles was declared
eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 but
has resurged in the past decade,
with more than 1,280 cases
reported in 2019. "It was not eradicated throughout the world, just
in the U.S., so the virus is still out
there," McLean says. An outbreak
can occur in the U.S., the CDC
says, when someone is infected
with measles in another country
and comes back and exposes
people in communities who are
unvaccinated. "When measles is
imported into a community with
a highly vaccinated population,
outbreaks either don't happen or
are usually small," the CDC says.
"However, once measles is in an
undervaccinated community,
it becomes difficult to control the
spread of the disease."

Make sure you and your family
are protected through regular
checkups with your family physician and your child's pediatrician. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommends that babies start vaccines
at birth and continue through
the first few years of life, with
additional doses given when they
are school age. Adults should
receive the annual flu vaccine
and other boosters as necessary,
based on age and individual disease risk factors.
Don't have a physician?
Community Healthcare System's
Community Care Network, Inc.
(CCNI) has a network of more
than 300 physicians, representing a broad range of specialties.
These providers are on staff at
Community Hospital in Munster,
St. Catherine Hospital in East
Chicago, St. Mary Medical Center
in Hobart and the
Community Stroke &
Rehabilitation Center in
Crown Point.
Finding the physician you
need is easy. Just visit the "Find
a Doctor" page on COMHS.org,
where you can narrow your
search by specialty or location.
Each physician profile contains
professional information about
the provider along with their
office contact information. Our
physician referral line also
can help.

Physician
Referral Line

Free physician referral by telephone is available Monday through
Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call
219-836-3477 or 866-836-3477.

SUMMER 2020 VIM & VIGOR

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ILLUSTRATION BY GERALDINE SY

http://www.COMHS.org

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2020 - CH

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