12A
HEALTH/The Charlotte Post
Wednesday, December 31, 1997
HEALTH
Parents up in arms about ‘useless’ vaccine
By Martha Irvine
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO - Fur and
Oreo walk San Francisco’s
streets, passing out clean needles
and condoms to thousands of
intravenous drug users.
It used to be mostly about stop
ping the spread of HIV. Now the
two recovering addicts are part of
a growing effort to get the city’s
young addicts immunized for
hepatitis A and B, the latter of
which spreads like HIV but is
about 100 times more contagious.
“Some kids don’t want to hear it
at first, especially the younger
ones,” says Fur, who’s 24. “But I
just tell them, “Hey, hepatitis is
just as slow and painful a disease
as HIV.’”
The CDC and the American
Academy of Pediatrics recom
mend that all newborns, infants
and children - especially sexually
active teens - be vaccinated
against hepatitis B. But some
people, like Kathy Rothschild of
Illinois, are fighting the move.
“What are the chances of my
child getting it from another
child?” says Rothschild, who is
leading a campaign to fight
mandatory hepatitis B vaccina
tion of fifth-graders in Illinois.
“It’s like zero. It doesn’t exist.”
Fur and Oreo, her 20-year-old
boyfnend, are part of a University
of Califomia-San Francisco study
aimed at getting IV drug users
younger than age 30 tested and
immunized.
While this study targets a par
ticularly high-risk population,
there is a national trend to immu
nize young people for hepatitis A
and B, prompted by the Centers
for Disease Control.
Doctors say both liver-attacking
diseases are completely pre
ventable, like polio, which is all
but nonexistent in this country.
“I wholeheartedly feel that we
should vaccinate,” says Dr. Judith
O’Donnell, a professor and infec
tious diseases expert at
Allegheny University Hospitals
in Philadelphia.
Doctors nationwide say they are
particularly worried about
hepatitis B, which can become a
chronic condition that leads to
liver disease and sometimes
death. It is spread by bodily flu
ids, such as blood, semen and
saliva.
Hepatitis A, most commonly
spread when fecal matter is pre
sent in food or water, doesn’t
become chronic, according to the
CDC. The most recent national
outbreak was spread by straw
berries.
For hepatitis C, a newer blood-
borne strain that is less under
stood, there is no vaccine.
Rothschild’s campaign has put
fifth-grade hepatitis B vaccina
tions on hold in Illinois. She start
ed the fight after she received a
letter from their Glenview school
saying that her lO-year-old
daughter, Beth, must receive the
vaccine.
Now she’s trying to get Illinois
added to the list of 15 states that
allow a “philosophical exemption”
for parents who don’t want their
kids vaccinated.
She and others say too few chil
dren contract hepatitis B to justi
fy the cost of immunizing every
kid.
“Parents are drawing a line in
the sand,” says Barbara Loe
Fisher, co-founder and president
of the Virginia-based National
Vaccine Information Center,
which also sponsors an anti-vac
cine group called Dissatisfied
Parents 'Ibgether. “They’ve been
good soldiers and have given vac
cines to our children in the past
few decades. And now they’re say
ing, “You know, this doesn’t feel
right.’ ”
Fisher’s group, which includes
parents whose children have had
adverse reactions to vaccines, is
fighting what she calls a trend to
vaccinate without enough
research.
The hepatitis B vaccine should
be given only to people in high-
risk groups - such as healthcare
workers, IV drug users and the
“sexually promiscuous,” Fisher
said.
Opponents also question
whether the vaccine, which needs
two booster shots a few months
after the first shot, would last
long enough to protect children in
their teen-age years.
New research is showing that
only one booster shot may be
needed, ODonnell said.
“Obviously, we cannot force peo
ple to undergo vaccination. It’s a
voluntary thing,” she said.
But parents shouldn’t assume
their children won’t be sexually
active as teen-agers, she said: “T
think they are probably a bit
naive about what their children
may or may not be doing.”
The Hepatitis Foundation
International also warns that
hepatitis B could be contracted
from something as simple as
unsanitary body piercing or blood-
to-blood contact during sports.
About 140,000 to 320,000
Americans get hepatitis B every
year, according to the CDC. Of
those, about half have symptoms
and as many as 10 percent
become carriers, some without
realizing it.
Healthcare workers worry in
particular about teens because,
unlike newborns who are now
routinely vaccinated for hepatitis,
most haven’t been vaccinated.
“It’s a big concern,” says Dr.
Chris Stoehr, of the San Francisco
public health department.
In San Francisco, there were 23
reported cases of hepatitis B last
year for those under age 30, the
youngest was 17. The actual
number is probably higher, espe
cially among those who use drugs
and live on the streets.
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