{"id":1020,"date":"2013-12-30T14:13:47","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T14:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2013-12-30T14:13:47","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T14:13:47","slug":"vaccine-preventable-disease-tetanus-among-oklahoma-homeschoolers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=1020","title":{"rendered":"VACCINE-PREVENTABLE DISEASE: Tetanus Among Oklahoma Homeschoolers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record:<\/strong>\u00a0 Matthew G. Johnson, Kristy K. Bradley, Susan Mendus, Laurence Burnsed, Rachel Clinton, and Tejpratap Tiwari, “Vaccine-Preventable Disease Among Homeschooled Children: Two Cases of Tetanus in Oklahoma” in Pediatrics <\/em>132 , no. 6 (December 2013): e1686-e1689. Available Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong>\u00a0 Johnso<\/em>n and colleagues begin by noting that rates of vaccination among homeschoolers are unknown because in many states they are not subject to the same school-entry vaccination requirements as are other schoolchildren.\u00a0 The authors then explain that tetanus has become extremely rare in the United States thanks to vaccinations.\u00a0 In the entire United States there were only 37 reported cases of tetanus in 2012.\u00a0 In Oklahoma there were only two.\u00a0 Both were homeschoolers, one of whom had never received a vaccination and the other of whom had not received the 10 year booster shot.<\/p>\n

The first patient, a 17 year-old white male, after puncturing his foot on a rusty boat anchor, contracted tetanus and was admitted to the hospital in June of 2012.\u00a0 Ten days later, after several rounds of very powerful drugs, he was discharged in stable condition.<\/p>\n

The second patient, an 8 year-old white male, after puncturing his foot on a rusty nail, contracted tetanus and was admitted to the hospital in October of 2012.\u00a0 This patient had a more severe case, which included respiratory failure requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation.\u00a0 He was in the intensive care unit for 18 days and was finally discharged from the hospital nearly two months after he had first been admitted.<\/p>\n

After describing both cases the authors return to the issue of homeschoolers and vaccinations, noting that some states (notably North Carolina) require of homeschoolers the same vaccinations they require of students attending public and private schools.\u00a0 But most do not.\u00a0 While the authors would like to see changes in law, they recognize that “strong resistance exists nationwide for any attempt to regulate homeschooling.” (p. e1688)\u00a0 They recommend that in lieu of legal changes efforts should be made to work with primary care physicians, with church groups and homeschooling associations, and with extra-curricular organizations homeschoolers tend to frequent to spread the word about the importance of vaccination.\u00a0 They also recommend periodic vaccination clinics for homeschooling families.<\/p>\n

Appraisal:<\/strong>\u00a0 Unfortunate situations like the two anecdotes described in this brief article occur quite frequently<\/a> in the homeschooling community<\/a> given the pervasive distrust many homeschoolers feel <\/a>toward medical professionals and especially toward vaccinations.\u00a0 This article’s recommended policies are well-intentioned, but they do not take into consideration this incredulity toward medical authority.\u00a0 The anecdotes themselves, however, are to me the more effective motivator.\u00a0 It’s not lack of access in most cases that is leading large numbers of homeschooling parents to forgo vaccination for their children.\u00a0 It is conviction that vaccines have harmful side effects.\u00a0 But what parent wants her child hospitalized for two months because of a poor parental judgment call?\u00a0 My policy proposal would be to increase public awareness of the horrible, needless suffering brought upon some children by such decisions.\u00a0 This article, appearing as it does in an obscure medical journal, is not likely to raise public consciousness.\u00a0 What is needed is a large-scale social marketing campaign analogous to campaigns to alert citizens to the dangers of smoking<\/a> or the virtues of breastfeeding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Milton Gaither, Messiah College, author of Homeschool: An American History<\/a>\"\"<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/strong>:\u00a0 The views expressed in reviews are not the official views of ICHER or of its members.\u00a0 For more information about ICHER\u2019s Reviews, please see the \u00ab\u00a0About these Reviews \u00bb Section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record:\u00a0 Matthew G. Johnson, Kristy K. Bradley, Susan Mendus, Laurence Burnsed, Rachel Clinton, and Tejpratap Tiwari, “Vaccine-Preventable Disease Among Homeschooled Children: Two Cases of Tetanus in Oklahoma” in Pediatrics 132 , no. 6 (December 2013): e1686-e1689. Available Here. Summary:\u00a0 Johnson … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[422,12],"tags":[936,928,930,927,23,934,933,931,935,937,929,932,393,394,926],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-policyregulation","tag-breastfeeding","tag-kristy-k-bradley","tag-laurence-burnsed","tag-matthew-g-johnson","tag-north-carolina","tag-oklahoma","tag-pediatrics","tag-rachel-clinton","tag-smoking","tag-social-marketing","tag-susan-mendus","tag-tejpratap-tiwari","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccine-preventable-disease","tag-vaccine-preventable-diseases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}