East-central Missouri is currently experiencing an increase in pertussis in school-age children. Since the early 1980’s, in the United States we have seen increasing rates of pertussis with periodic peaks every three to four years. Most of those reported with the disease had been vaccinated. However, the rates today are far lower than when there was no vaccine to protect against pertussis and no vaccine is 100% effective. Although most of those with pertussis make a full recovery it can be very dangerous, especially to very young infants. So it is still very important to be vaccinated and most of those who are vaccinated will be protected.
This current situation led me to think about what it used to be like before we had vaccines to protect against disease. All of these vaccine preventable diseases used to be deadly, some very deadly. In order to explore this thought I turned to the CDC website.
Below is a link to a page that asks, “What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations?” Not only is this page interesting historically, it also may provide answers to those of us who have ever wondered, “Is it really that important for my children to be vaccinated?” or “Is it important for me as an adult to be vaccinated?”
Please take the time to click on the link below. I think it will answer those questions and will also explain why older cemeteries contain so many graves of young children.
Here is the link: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm