Feb. 9--TO VIEW THE MANDATORY immunizations for school entry, go to the link section of dominionpost.com.
It was more than a dozen years ago that John Grindley hurt himself with a chainsaw. In addition to treatment for the wound, he received a tetanus shot and afterward contracted asthma. He believes the tetanus vaccine sparked the asthma.
Grindley said his family's history of medical issues resulted in him not receiving any vaccines until that tetanus shot in 1996 when he was 32.
Now 45, the Wheeling man is active in the West Virginians for Vaccine Exemption and urging the state to allow religious and philosophical exemptions so residents who do not want their children vaccinated have options.
The state Department of Health and Human Resources mandates that children should be vaccinated against a number of diseases, including measles and chicken pox, unless there is a medical exemption.
Every state has medical exemptions. However, only two -- West Virginia and Mississippi -- do not have religious exemptions, according to the National Vaccine Information Center. West Virginia also does not allow philosophical exemptions.
Bureau for Public Health Immunization Program Manager Jeff Neccuzi said philosophical exemptions are all the other reasons for not receiving a vaccination.
Grindley's fight to change West Virginia's vaccination laws began in 2003 when non-medical exemption bill SB136 passed the House but not the Senate.
"Essentially, what you're seeing in this country played out is a flood of vaccines in the last 10, 20 years," Grindley said. "What you see is going to be more and more and more."
He also wants the law changed for the sake of his children. Because of his medical history and a family history of allergies, he fought unsuccessfully for medical exemptions for his children. As a result, he drives his two daughters, 7 and 11, to school in Ohio since they cannot attend school in West Virginia without vaccinations.
"If I get the law changed for the whole state, then my children win," he said. "The worst place you can live in the world ... not just the U.S., the entire world ... is the state of West Virginia when it comes to this issue."
Neccuzi disagrees.
"We're the envy of the other 48 states in terms of public health leaders," he said. "Because having the tougher immunization requirements means that we are keeping all the children, and adults for that matter, in the school systems in West Virginia healthier, safer."
The DHHR uses immunization guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Because no vaccine protects 100 percent, Neccuzi said the more nonvaccinated people, the more likely an outbreak. "There would be the epidemic," he said, should some diseases reoccur. "Make no mistake about it."
Neccuzi cited a flawed study in Great Britain that persuaded many parents to not vaccinate their children for measles. He said several thousand people were sickened and some died.
A growing number of people believed that childhood immunizations, particularly the measles vaccine, could be linked to autism, but some studies indicate otherwise. As recently as last month, an Italian study was released that found there is no link between measles and autism.
Monongalia County Schools School Health/Homebound Services Supervisor and Coordinator Candace Berry, RN, BSN, said she would not hesitate to vaccinate her children.
"These diseases can actually ... kids can die from them," she said. "We're getting to the point where we're never going to have [some diseases] again."
She does not recommend a law with vaccine exemptions. She did, however, say that actually having a disease, such as chicken pox, provides better immunity from the disease than a vaccine. But, Berry said, now kids do not have to go through a 14-day period where they are sick with the chicken pox.
Berry also said that because inoculations combine vaccines, children do not have to go through the ordeal of several different shots.
"It's wonderful," she said. "That's traumatic, so the drug companies are now coming out with a lot of combination shots, which makes it so much better, less traumatic on the child."
Berry said she accepts when people feel strongly about not immunizing because of religious beliefs, but as a medical professional, she is concerned about what could happen if children are not properly immunized.
Dr. Kathryn S. Moffett, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, said the state should not have nonmedical exemptions.
"I think that's important because these are not benign diseases," she said.
Moffett said some diseases, such as measles, carry a risk long after the person has overcame the sickness. One in 500,000 people can slip into a coma after measles. She also said brain deterioration can occur.
"We forget that all these diseases can be very serious diseases," Moffett said.
She said that by making sure everyone who can be vaccinated is, those who cannot be vaccinated are protected from diseases.
Moffett said that an infant died two years ago from Pertussis, or whooping cough, because the adults around the child were not vaccinated. The baby was not old enough to receive the vaccine, but she would not have been exposed had an adult not carried whooping cough.
"That should never have happened," she said of the child's death. "The idea is that now we make sure that everyone around that baby gets vaccinated. That's the real strategy of preventing Pertussis."
While vaccines do inject proteins into the system, Moffett said the number is minor compared to what people are exposed to in the environment.
"There is not a burden on the immune system," she said. "We are not over-stimulating the immune system."
Should the issue of exemptions come before the House, Delegate Alex Shook, D-Monongalia, said his vote would depend on the language of the bill. Shook said the issue has affected him because he has close friends who believe deeply their child's death was a result of a vaccine.
"I'm very sensitive to those issues," he said. However, he said, vaccines cannot be so voluntary that there would be outbreaks of diseases. There is not a one-sizefits-all answer, he said.
Shook said doctors and scientists should be brought in for these decisions. He does think some vaccines, such as the one for human papillomavirus (HPV), should be a parent's choice. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that has been known to increase the risk of cervical cancer in women.
"That's a particular case where I think the parent should have the option," he said of the HPV vaccine.
With immunizations preventing major diseases, Moffett and Neccuzi look at the benefit of mandatory vaccinations for the public.
"I look at vaccines like it's a public health decision that we as a society have made," Moffett said. "I think that vaccines are a choice we make as living in a society; it's a public health choice."
"We are safer for having the strong immunization requirements we have for school entry," Neccuzi said. "Everybody's at risk."
Grindley will continue working to have West Virginia's vaccine laws changed, he said, so that other parents will not have to battle for vaccine exemptions.
"Isn't it sad that this state will have to waste money because they won't honor religious freedom and informed consent in the state?" he said. "It's either fight or flee, and I'm gonna fight."
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