Bayshore Pediatrics Vaccination Policy

Bayshore Pediatrics is committed to serving the health care needs of our patients and the community. Part of this ongoing commitment is by offering and providing immunizations as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). By immunizing our patients, we are preventing not only serious illness in our patients but also preventing the spread of serious diseases to other children and adults that our patients may come in contact with.

We believe that immunizations are one of the most important medical breakthroughs of the last century. Immunizations may be the single most important health-promoting intervention we perform as health care providers and that parents can do to promote good health and protect their children.

Due to the increase in publicity and poor information, we realize that there may be concerns about the safety of vaccines for children. We at Bayshore Pediatrics take vaccine safety and efficacy extremely seriously. We consider each vaccine carefully before deciding to administer to our patients. The recommended vaccines and their schedule given are the results of ongoing years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

As medical professionals, we believe fully in the safety and necessity of vaccinations. At each physical (well child) visit, we emphasize the need for age-appropriate vaccinations and strongly encourage parents to vaccinate their children on schedule. This emphases and encouragement comes from the belief and desire to provide the best medical protection for children possible.

Viruses and bacteria that cause vaccine-preventable disease and death still exist. As recent as 2008, there has been an outbreak of measles in many parts of the United States, including Wisconsin. In 2005, there were confirmed cases of pertussis in communities of Wisconsin. This shows that the illness and the need to vaccinate against vaccine-preventable diseases still exist. Aside from smallpox, the illnesses that are preventable by vaccine have not been eliminated.

Before vaccines, parents in the United States could expect that every year:

• Polio would paralyze 10,000 children.
• Rubella (German measles) would cause birth defects and mental retardation in as many as 20,000 newborns.
• Measles would infect about 1 in 1000 children.
• Diphtheria would be one of the most common causes of death in school-aged children.
• A bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB) would cause meningitis in 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage.
• Pertussis (whooping cough) would kill thousands of infants.

Vaccines have dramatically reduced the number of people who get infectious diseases and the complications these diseases produce. Many of the complications have life-long effects and severity and even include death. Because of vaccines, many physicians have never seen a child with polio, tetanus, whooping cough, bacterial meningitis or even chicken pox. With the disappearance of many childhood diseases that would have killed or severely disabled people just a few generations before, some parents have begun to question whether vaccines are still necessary. Without vaccines, epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases would return, resulting in increased illness, disability and death. Vaccine-preventable diseases also have a costly impact, resulting in doctor's visits, hospitalizations and lost time from work for many parents.

Based on the available literature, evidence and current scientific, consistent and reproducible studies, we believe that thimerosal (a form of mercury that is used as a preservative in some vaccines) does not cause autism or other developmental disabilities. We strive to ensure that all of vaccines are thimerosal-free and beginning in 2008-2009 season, will have thimerosal-free influenza for all patients.

After numerous well-controlled studies on thousands of children, there is no evidence that MMR causes autism. However, there is undisputable evidence that measles kills 1-3/1000 cases or causes brain damage in 1/1000 cases.

The AAP and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) both recommend administering multiple immunizations at each visit and not "splitting vaccines." Multiple shots and combination vaccines are utilized for three main reasons:

1) To provide broad immunologic protection to children when they are young and most vulnerable.

2) To minimize the absolute number of shots needed.

3) To minimize the number of office visits and thus the likelihood of medical error and the cost to the health care system.

Administration of simultaneous immunizations has been extensively studied and determined to be safe and efficacious. There is no negative effect on the normal childhood immune system. The average child is exposed to millions of germs each day. The number of antigens found in immunizations pale in comparison to the load the immune system faces daily. There is no medical benefit to splitting shots. We encourage you to speak with your physician about any concerns you might have.

• Questions about Thimerisol
• Vaccine safety
• Multiple vaccine safety
• Why immunizations are important
• Childhood Immunization Support Program

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