Myth: It's Better to Get the Disease Than the Vaccine

November 22, 2009

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Myth: It's Better to Get the Disease Than the Vaccine

by Lynn Cates, M.D., F.A.A.P.
reviewed by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P.

Myth: It's better to get the disease than the vaccine, because the natural disease isn't so bad.

Fact: The risk of serious complications, including permanent disability or death, following natural disease is much higher than that from the vaccine. Vaccines offer protection from disease without risking the serious adverse effects of that illness.

Risks of natural disease
All vaccine-preventable infections have the potential to be fatal, even in previously healthy children. Here are just a few examples of other complications:

Hepatitis B can cause permanent liver damage requiring a liver transplant, or it can lead to liver cancer.

Polio can cause paralysis.

Rubella in a pregnant woman can cause her baby to have serious birth defects, including blindness and brain damage.

Pneumococcal, meningococcal and Haemophilus influenzae type b infections can cause deafness and brain damage.

Chickenpox can lead to infection with flesh-eating strep bacteria that can cause severe disability or death.

Risks of vaccine
The most common side effects of vaccines are a mild fever and soreness where the shot was given. Serious side effects are very rare--ranging from one per thousands to one per millions of doses of vaccine. Vaccines have caused so few deaths, there is no way to determine the exact risk for any individual child, but it is very, very low.

Adapted from the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii) Copyright 2000, and the National Immunization Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


RELATED INFORMATION

			Immunization Myths

Created December 20, 2000
Reviewed December 21, 2000

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