As a medical student I remember how our Preventive and Social Medicine teachers would threaten that if we did not remember Vaccination Schedule approved by Government of India we would be flunked in our Viva Voce. We needed to remember, by heart, which vaccines need to be administered in which month! And why the emphasis? Vaccines may cause mild symptoms but the price paid for not vaccinating could be debilitating / crippling ailments, mental retardation in offspring, liver cancer or even death due to acute severe ailments. Several myths exist, so much so that even WHO has to publish clarifications and popularize true facts about many myths about vaccination. Commonest being.. Vaccines cause autism FALSE – There was a study in 1998 study raising alarms about a possible link between measles-mumps-rubella(MMR) vaccine and autism later was found to be seriously flawed. The paper was withdrawn unfortunately after setting off a panic leading to dropping immunization rates and resulting outbreaks of these diseases. There is no evidence of a link between MMR vaccine and autism or autistic disorders. Often the literate so called learned couples come up for discussion not to vaccinate leaving us doctors more angry than shocked! Common objections we hear: 1. Parents are scared of fever caused by vaccines. It is nothing compared to the actual sickness; almost like a drop in the ocean! 2. Often some friend has not vaccinated their child who is fine so why should we? The friend’s kid is absolutely lucky for not paying dearly for parent’s deeds. The friend should thank ‘herd immunity-immunity generated by other responsible parents vaccinating their children’ for nothing happening to the child. 3, Parent read about a serious complication of a certain vaccine in lay press! Advisable is to search some credible website like http://www.whoindia.org/en/index.htm or http://www.cdc.gov/ or http://www.growingwell.com/bchild/vaccination.htm Most webpages that give such negative reports use terms like ‘maybe’, ‘said to have’, ‘alleged to…’ etc. Always talk to your family doctor or paediatrician before taking a decision that you may severely regret later and believe me the situation would be beyond control.    Few facts for anyone who has similar doubts:

1. After decades of struggle small pox was eradicated, globally, in late 70s and this was possible only due to mandatory vaccination against it. It was even required before you could fly to another country. The generation today may not know about small pox as the disfigured faces of small pox are seen rarely.
2. Infant mortality rate – In India, under 5 mortality rate (number of children dying before attaining 5 years of age per 1000 live births) has declined from 190 deaths per thousand live births in 1970 to 50 deaths per thousand live births in 2009. This decline is attributed largely to vaccinations in addition to sanitation and better healthcare. This pace of decline is slowing down largely because inadequate funding and low perceived need for vaccinations.
3. Pulse Polio Programme – campaign run by the government of India since 1995-96 to eradicate poliomyelitis (polio) in India by vaccinating all children under the age of five years against polio virus. This way of immunizing the entire critical mass is building up, already mentioned ‘herd immunity’.
4. Herd immunity – How do vaccines prevent outbreaks of disease?  When a critical portion (most at risk) of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, most members of the community are protected against that disease because there is little opportunity for an outbreak. Even those who are not eligible for certain vaccines—such as infants, pregnant women, or immunocompromised individuals—get protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained.

5. In late 70s & early 80s, every monsoon most children would get measles, most of them suffered from acute post measles bronchitis; several would be hospitalized with pneumonia and few unfortunate would succumb to complications. From early 90s this lessened drastically as Measles vaccines was introduced in India in mid 80s and today we may not even see a single case of measles in a year!

There are specific contraindications to some vaccines. The doctor is best equipped to take a judgmental call about the vaccination, it is advisable to better let it be a clinical decision!