The Health | april, 2019
10
issue: Vaccine
issue: Vaccine
The
debate
is far
from
over
The falling vaccination rate
poses a health risk as debate
over its safety continues
By Reenasri Sekaran
F
or the past few months, we have seen an
increase in interest in vaccines and anti-
vaxxers - a movement where a group of
people opposes the idea of vaccination.
Social media and information gathering
through Google have added into the anti-
vaxxer equation, and have made the Health Ministry
to contemplate in making vaccination compulsory.
The Health speaks to Deputy Health Minister Dr
Lee Boon Chye, as he explains the current issues with
vaccination in Malaysia.
“Currently in the cases of tetanus, diphtheria, and
hepatitis B, the vaccination rates are more than 98
percent. However for measles, mumps, and rubella
(MMR) vaccine – the rate is only at 89 percent. The
MMR vaccine is usually given when the baby reaches
9 months old. We just don’t look at numbers but also
keep an eye on the trend. I believe it used to be at
least 94 percent, but it took a significant drop to cur-
rent percentage this year. This drop is a real cause of
concern,” stresses Dr Lee.
The deadly plague: anti-vaxxers
So why the drop in MMR vaccines?
“A lot of the anti-vaccine campaigns are being spread
using social media. Many of these messages are not
based on scientific facts. Instead it iss based on specu-
lation. These information is often not confirmed and
at the end of the day, it gets in their head.”
“At the moment we are still researching the pos-
sibility of enforcing compulsory vaccination. In the
meantime, we are intensifying and expanding our
efforts in educating parents on the benefits of vaccina-
tion. We are doing our best to reduce the vaccination
refusal rate.”
Dr Lee says that the anti-vaccination movement has been affecting the health of Malaysians
considerably, following the cases of diphtheria and measles recently.
It takes a herd
“We know that in the cases of measles and MMR, in
order to have an enough amount of protection, we
need at least 95% percent rate for herd immunity to
take effect. This is due to the fact that not everyone
who gets vaccinated develops the antibody. Therefore
a small percentage doesn’t actually develop antibody
despite given vaccination.”
According to Dr Lee, if at least 95 percent of the
population is vaccinated, this figure makes it possible
to break the virus transmission. So the rate of infec-
tion will be at a very low or even rare number.
Once the number of people who don’t get their
children vaccinated increases, the virus which affects
one particular person can start spreading to other
children who may or may not have been vaccinated.