Dr. Alexandra Cvijanovich still recalls the 13-year-old child who was never given another opportunity. He was too young to get his vaccine when he contracted measles as an infant, and the infection took his life some years later.
He got the disease before he could get the vaccine.” “That was a tragedy that could have been avoided.”
She’s dealing with the greater concern now that vaccine hesitancy has arisen: children being exposed to once-obsolete diseases in Albuquerque, New Mexico.”
The Battle Against Misinformation and Fear
According to pediatricians all over the country, parents are scaling down or completely passing on administering the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine to their children. Most cite the mistrust in the medical system; fears regarding the substances; or misinformation regarding vaccination from social media.
Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a physician affiliated with Columbia University, indicated that dealing with the individual fears of each parent seems to be the trick.
“Where did you hear that?” I question them. “Let’s research it together,” she added. “Parents frequently discover they have been duped.”
However, it might strike suspicion at deeper roots in some cases. Cvijanovich refers to a family that considers the current measles outbreak in New Mexico as a “government hoax.” She said: “Those arguments are ignored.”
Rebuilding Trust, One Conversation at a Time
There is a change in attitude among doctors as they now tend to consider parents to be their allies, instead of adversaries.
According to Dr. Christina Johns, who specializes in pediatric emergency cases, parents and pediatricians are after the same goal: for children to be safe. “If we can have an honest civil conversation, then we can get past those fears.”
But time, according to public health workers, is of the essence. Maintaining herd immunity will necessitate at least 95 percent of the population be vaccinated in order to break the chains of infection.
Every conversation about vaccination is, for Cvijanovich, an opportunity to save another child from experiencing the same fate as her 13-year-old patient.
She won’t quit.
