A tragic death of British schoolgirl Natalie Morton was the first lethal accident connected to a vaccine against cervical cancer called Cervarix. Doctors say that the cause of death was the girl’s “individual reaction” to the shot.
The death of the 14-year-old girl after she received a vaccine against cervical cancer shocked the public. As each girl receives the vaccine three times, it makes about 500,000 vaccinated teenagers across the UK. According to statistics, 1,000 women would die from cervical cancer if not vaccinated. The effectiveness of the vaccine is 70 percent, meaning it will save at least 700 lives. Every day, three women die from cervical cancer. Natalie Morton’s death is the tragedy. Although the cause of her death has not been indentified yet. What’s know is that day three women died from the disease and 700 were saved due to vaccination, say Cervarix advocates.
Now that mass media is giving an extensive coverage to the vaccination related risks, it is even more important to balance that information with the risks associated with the disease itself. Out of 5,000 not-vaccinated girls, seven will die from cancer. Even if Natalie’s death did have connection to the shot – it’s yet to be found out – one death should not frighten away other 500,000 girls, experts assure, otherwise the death toll will rise up to 700 women.
Just one century back, infections killed babies in cradles, children and teenagers in a number we can’t even imagine today. The implementation of immunization programs has changed it radically. For two straight generations, people have lived without a fear about getting infected. They have not been afraid of losing their children at any minute.
We became so indulged that we raise hackles about occasional adverse effects of vaccines, forgetting that killer infections keep on existing. Once you stop vaccinating children, infections will gain ground, bringing outbreaks of diseases just in one decade. So vaccination supporters advise parents to remember about the risk of not getting their children vaccinated when deciding on the refusal of immunization under the pressure of mass media reports which are sometimes biased.
Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/8499561@N02.
