Bad experience a reason some avoid inoculation

PETALING JAYA: A previous bad experience is one reason some parents have chosen not to vaccinate.

Bessie, 34, who did not want her real name published, saw her first child, now aged six, fully vaccinated according to the government recommended schedule.

However, it was her experience with her second child, now aged four, that altered her thinking.

The child seemed to have an adverse reaction to the Hepatitis B vaccine when given the jab at one-month-old.

“She was vaccinated in the morning and the swelling and discomfort started not long after and the following night.

“She cried persistently for three hours and gave one very loud, high-pitched scream,” she said.

Bessie said her daughter continued to have fever for a few days, along with a swollen thigh for more than a week.

“Later, I found out she had brain inflammation and after that, I noticed behavioural change and loss of eye-contact,” she said.

As her daughter grew older, she had speech delay, she said.

She said there was no fever or illness prior to the vaccination and the baby was a healthy, fully breastfed baby.

A father of fraternal twin daughters from Subang Jaya, Dan, 36, spoke of the trauma his children went through 10 days after their second and third month shots, which were the first and second doses of DTP, polio and Hib vaccines.

He said both his twins had fever.

However, the older twin suffered a seizure twice: on Nov 19, 2009 and Dec 19, 2009.

When she had the second seizure, she had to be rushed to the hospital and admitted into the intensive care unit for two days.

“The older twin also gave out a sudden ‘weird’ high-pitched scream and it sometimes happened in the middle of the night. She’d also suddenly throw her head backwards,” he said.

The doctor said the seizures were due to E. coli infection but at the sixth month, Dan decided to stop all vaccines for the twins until he researched further.

“I later learned that this was a sign of encephalitis (swelling of the brain), which can be triggered by vaccines,” he said.

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