Here’s some information — hard numbers, not questionable anecdotal evidence — on how vaccines have changed the health of our country.
In the 1940’s and 50’s, Polio crippled about 35,000 people per year in the US. By the end of the 70’s, the US was polio-free, and remains so today.
Measles kills about 1-2 out of 1000 who contract it. Worldwide, there are over 150,000 deaths from measles. Before the vaccine, the US experienced about 500 deaths per year and thousands of hospitalizations and serious complications, which can result from ear infections and pneumonia caused by the disease. Now there are less than 200 cases per year in the US, most of them originating outside of the country, and usually occurring in areas with lower vaccination rates.
Mumps can cause problems such as infertility, meningitis, and deafness. Incidence of mumps has decreased 99% in the US since the vaccine was introduced.
Rubella can result in serious complications such as deafness, mental retardation, and liver damage. If a pregnant woman contracts it, there is about a 1 in 5 chance of damage to her baby, including miscarriage, neonatal death, and mental retardation. Incidence of damaged babies has fallen thousands (an epidemic in the 60’s effected over 30,000 pregnant women) to a handful yearly, mostly in foreign-born mothers.
Before treatment was available, diphtheria killed over 15,000 people per year. Up to half of cases result in death without treatment, and about 1 in 10 result in death even with treatment. Now, there are only a handful of cases per year in the US thanks to the vaccine.
Tetanus, or lockjaw, kills as much as 30% of people infected. The US has gone fromover a thousand cases per year to only a handful. Most (about 75%) of recent cases are in those who are unvaccinated or haven’t kept up on boosters. Even with modern medicine, death rates are still over 10% once tetanus manifests.
About half of infants who get pertussis, or whooping cough, will be hospitalized. Of those, 25% will develop pneumonia, half will have convulsions, 66% will have slowed or stopped breathing, and about 1-2% will die. Almost all whooping cough deaths since 2000 were in infants. It is significantly less serious in older children and adults, but still highly unpleasant, and coughing can last for months. Worldwide, whooping cough kills nearly 200,000 per year. Unfortunately, people declining the vaccine is resulting in an increase in cases; in 2012, there was the highest number of cases reported since the 1950’s. People who have had the vaccine but contract the disease usually have a less severe case. One study* showed that countries with reduced vaccination rates have 10-100 times more cases than countries with higher sustained rates.
(*Gangarosa EJ, et al. Impact of anti-vaccine movements on pertussis control: the untold story. Lancet 1998;351:356-61.)
Pre-vaccination era complications of Hib
Haemophilus Influenzae Type b, or Hib, can cause meningitis in about 50% of cases, which can result in hearing loss or brain damage, and blood infections leading to loss of limbs. Both of these complications can also cause death. Rates of the disease have fallen 99% since vaccinations began, from tens of thousands to only dozens per year, and most cases are in unvaccinated or under-vaccinated people, and few whose vaccinations had failed.
Pneumococcal infections can result in pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis/bacteremia, and/or severe ear/sinus infections. For those under 5 who get meningitis, about 10% die. For bacteremia, about 4% of children die. About 5% die from pneumonia. Sinus and ear infections rarely cause serious complications, but it can result in repeat infections and the need for ear tubes. Disease rates hav decreased by 85%, but there are still a few thousand deaths still occur each year, and those at highest risk of infection are adults who remain unvaccinated or under-vaccinated.
Oh, and do you know why we no longer have smallpox, which kills about 30% of it’s patients, has no cure, and doesn’t really have any effective treatments? We no longer have it because the world eradicated it through widespread vaccinations. Please tell me how getting rid of a deadly disease is worse than vaccinating against it.
The Life of Lee 