‘Reason to vaccinate your kids?’: Woman shares heartbreaking photo of sick 7-week-old
Alecia Rankin has a message for people who think vaccinating their children is a personal matter.
She recently shared a photo of her sick 7-week-old niece Aryn strapped to IVs on Facebook.
“Reason #1736493983283763 to vaccinate your kids? My 7 week old niece has HIB flu,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “So rare that her doctor hasn’t seen it in her career because this bacteria caused by HIB flu was all but eradicated by vaccines.”
HIB flu is serious disease that was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis among children under 5 years old in the United States, before the vaccine was approved in 1992, according to the CDC.
Rankin’s baby niece Aryn was unfortunately not old enough to receive the vaccine, she wrote. The CDC recommends that infants get their first round of HIB vaccines starting at 2 months old.
“So before you decide not to vaccinate your children because ‘it’s your choice’ and ‘those who are vaccinated won’t be affected,’ remember that babies can get sick before they have the chance to get their vaccine,” she wrote on Facebook.
Children can contract HIB by “being around other children or adults who may have the bacteria and not know it,” according to the CDC.
“The germs spread from person to person,” according to the CDC. Since the disease is very rare among adults, and mainly affects adults with certain diseases, children are the likely culprits for spreading the disease.
Many people called Rankin’s photo “heartbreaking,” and it received more than 2,200 comments on Facebook, sparking a lot of debate among anti-vaccinating parents.
“Sorry about your niece. But my 17 month old is unvaccinated and I wouldn't have it any other way,” one woman wrote. “I have done SO much research and I'm comfortable with my decision.”
“Not sacrificing my children either,” another woman wrote. “Sorry, not sorry.”
The anti-vaccination movement gained steam in 1998, when a doctor in the U.K. published a paper claiming that vaccines cause autism, Time reported. Even though the doctor’s medical license was taken away in 2010 for “dishonestly and irresponsibly” publishing the paper and making unproven claims, only 72 percent of infants received all seven recommended vaccines in 2015, according to the CDC.
According to a 2014 CDC study, childhood vaccines have saved the lives of over 700,000 children since 1994.
Rankin later updated the post, saying that her niece “thankfully” was sent home from the hospital and is doing well.
This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 10:43 AM with the headline "‘Reason to vaccinate your kids?’: Woman shares heartbreaking photo of sick 7-week-old."