Legal and Ethical Issues About The Mmr Vaccine

As we grow more advanced in this world we make new discoveries each and every day. Our medical research technologies have grown more advanced in the recent years and will continue to grow in the coming up years. One of the most researched and tested topics in our medical field is children's vaccines. As new information is given to the public many new controversies also arise among the populations. One of today's biggest disputes is the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Many parents have become reluctant to vaccinate their children because of risky long-term side effects that have come into light in the recent years. The measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination has many controversial side effects surrounding it that can cause many adverse side effects such as deafness, febrile seizures, and even brain damage, but there are only a small percentage who actually contract these issues, there is a greater number of people who actually benefit from this then who see the negative side effects.

The measles, mumps, and rubella diseases have been around for hundreds of years. Measles first came to be known in the ninth century when a Persian doctor first wrote about the illness. The measles first became notable in the year 1912 and continued until the United States started the MMR vaccine program (Measles (Rubeola)). Before the United States started the MMR vaccine program, it was estimated that three to four million people contracted this disease each year. Out of those three to four million people only about five hundred thousand cases were reported each year. Of the five hundred thousand cases reported, four to five hundred people died, forty-eight thousand people were hospitalized, and an estimated one thousand people contracted encephalitis. Since the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine program has been put into place, the number of people who contact these disease has dropped to about ninety-nine percent (Measles (Rubeola)).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has done research to prove that adverse reactions only occur in one of every one million doses. Once a child is given the MMR vaccine they then become five times more at risk to experience febrile seizures (Measles - Vaccine). Many parents and guardians become distressed when they learn of the possible side effects of vaccines or the side effects of contracting the measles, mumps, or rubella. But when you take in to account both sides of the situation, you come across many issues that you have to learn to live with when choosing what is best your child and your situation. Anytime a child experiences a fever of one hundred and two or high they are put high on the risk list to experience the illness of lifelong febrile seizures. If a child does not receive the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, then are they still are the risk for febrile seizures?

They are because a symptom for the measles, mumps, and rubella virus is a fever. Parents can try to protect children all they want to, but no matter what they do, there will always be a risk for something harmful to occur. There has to be a certain line your willing to cross when making decisions that affect your child's future. Hearing loss from the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is said to only have hearing loss as a possibility in every five to twenty people out of one hundred thousand people. All cases of unilateral and bilateral deafness have occurred within less than a year of receiving the vaccine. When hearing loss occurs the patients will also experience several other symptoms that have occurred such as, dizziness, vomiting, fever, and many other abnormal signs (Stewart, BJ). A twenty-seven-year-old woman was reported to becoming very sick three days after receiving her measles, mumps, and rubella booster vaccine. She had several symptoms such as fever, headaches, tinnitus, dizziness, vomiting, and not being able to walk steadily on her own. On day twenty-two the patient reported having hearing loss, though little it soon turned into a very tragic event (Bilateral Hearing). When this patients case was brought to light they ran several tests to eliminated any other possibilities that could be affecting the women's health.

They found nothing else and deemed that the MMR virus was responsible for the bilateral hearing loss. Researchers have also found that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine can also be the cause of some brain damage. One of the biggest issues that doctors have come across is encephalitis, inflammation of the brain, or encephalopathy, chronic brain dysfunction. On March 31, 2018, research was done to gather statistics on the MMR vaccine and the number of adverse effects. It was found that there were more than eighty-nine thousand, three hundred and fifty-five people who were hospitalized, injured, killed, or just admitted for adverse effects due to their reaction of the MMR vaccine. One thousand six hundred and fifty-seven of those reports were all related to some sort of disability. More than sixty percent of the listed thousand, three hundred and fifty-five people effect, was three years old or younger. (Can Measles). On the other is of the spectrum you have to consider how the measles, mumps, or even rubella effects the brain. If someone contacts one of these diseases they have the possibility of experiencing encephalitis much like the adverse effect of being the vaccine also. We have to look up all of the facts when we are looking into healthcare and how it affects us. Research is key before you jump into doing something.

As we discover more issues and health care advancement we discover a whole new world that everyone needs to look into. Vaccines have many downfalls and many upsides to them as well. Everyone has and is entitled to their own opinions when they come to the decisions about giving or receiving vaccines. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been proven to have many adverse side effects and so does contracting the actual virus of all of those diseases. A few of the adverse effects of the MMR vaccine is deafness, febrile seizures, and brain damage. When choosing how to help our bodies grow and stay healthy we need o take in all considerations that we have access to and make an educated.