Thursday, June 16, 2016

HOMEOPATHY AND VACCINATION

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual's immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate morbidity from infection. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified; for example, the influenza vaccine, the HPV vaccine, and the chicken pox vaccine. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases like polio, measles, tetanus etc. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that licensed vaccines are currently available to prevent or contribute to the prevention and control of twenty-five infections. Few benefits of immunizing your child are:
  1. It can save your child’s life.
  2. It is safe and effective. Very rarely allergic reactions occur to the vaccines but can be treated very easily.
  3. It protects your family and future generations.
  4. It saves your time and money.
WHO has standardized national immunization schedules and it is very important for parents to follow it. There are a lot of risks if you do not immunize your child. For example, if polio vaccination is not given to your child and supposedly your child gets infected with polio than he may be crippled throughout his life. In future, your handicapped child may question you for not vaccinating him. You might be left with no answers then! 1 in 4 parents still believes vaccines can cause autism. Moreover, many parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children because they feel that diseases are no longer present due to all the vaccinations. This is incorrect since diseases can still return, and even infect vaccinated people due to their ability to mutate when they are able to live in unvaccinated hosts. This can be clearly shown by a case in 2010: there was a whooping cough outbreak in California which was the worst outbreak in 50 years and was entirely due to parents choosing to exempt their children from vaccinations. Additionally, there was a case in Texas in 2012 where 21 members of a church contracted measles because the members of the church chose to abstain from immunizations. Similarly in this Malaysia off recently there had been many death from pertussis as parents had not vaccinated their children against pertussis.



A number of people use traditional and complementary medicines (commonly referred to as TCM). One form of TCM is homeopathy, which uses highly diluted preparations that stimulate the body’s own healing response to treat a wide range of illnesses. Some people consider homeopathy for their child’s immunization rather than conventional vaccination. Homeopathy preparations and schedules have been developed claiming to prevent childhood infectious diseases such as pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, diphtheria, measles, mumps and rubella (German measles). However, unlike conventional vaccinations, there has been no rigorously tested research to demonstrate the safety or effectiveness of homeopathic preparations in providing protection against childhood infectious diseases. In addition, there is no biologically plausible mechanism for how homeopathy can act similar to vaccination. Even Homeopathic peak organizations still support the need for children to be vaccinated conventionally. 

It is true that Homeopathy works wonders in many chronic diseases and some infectious diseases. Treatment of some diseases like childhood diarrhea, hay fever, skin disorders, allergic conditions, autoimmune conditions etc. have been scientifically tested. However, no well-designed, well-reported and high-quality research can be found that demonstrates the effectiveness of homeopathy and immunization. (In fact, Homeopathy should never be replaced by vaccination). This is in contrast to conventional immunizations which have been rigorously tested, and for which there are large amounts of high quality clinical and epidemiological data to support their efficacy in the prevention of certain childhood infectious diseases. Most of the associations like the British Homeopathic Association, Central Council of Homeopathy and the Australian Register of Homeopaths recommend that people should receive conventional immunization and that homeopathic preparations “should not be recommended as a substitute for [conventional] immunization”.

However, Homeopathy medicines can be given to lessen the possible side effects (which are very rare) of conventional vaccination. Minor side effects such as redness, swelling, fever, pain and occasionally allergies can be easily treated with homeopathy medicines.

DR. FAISAL GIRACH.
Program Coordinator- Bachelor of Homeopathy Medical Sciences (BHMS),
Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS),

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