Dead, blind, comatose - the victims of not vaccinating

By Philip Whiteside, international news reporter and Catrin Rutland, reporter

The student who died from meningitis

Sharon Sandell lost her 18-year-old daughter Lauren in 2016 to meningitis, a disease which is frequently fatal.
At the time young people due to attend university were advised to get a free vaccination from their GP.
Lauren's Mum discovered that the vaccination was available just days before Lauren headed off to study but she was unable to see a doctor or nurse before she went.
Two weeks later, with an appointment booked but still two weeks away, Lauren returned home from university feeling ill.
She had a headache, her legs hurt, her hands and feet were cold and was struggling to breathe.

Within minutes of seeing her daughter after she arrived back, Lauren's condition deteriorated and Sharon was begging her to keep breathing.
She phoned for an ambulance and started doing CPR, desperately trying to save her life, but Lauren died in her arms.
Sharon told Sky News: "There were no early warning signs that Lauren had meningitis, she died so suddenly there was nothing we could do.
"I cannot understand why people are concerned about immunisation. At the end of the day, if Lauren had got the jab she would be alive.
"We would not have missed getting it if we had known about it earlier."
Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF), which has profiled Lauren's story to highlight the dangers from meningitis, promotes the use of vaccinate and advocates for effective vaccine policy in the UK and around the world.
Rob Dawson, director of communications and support, said: "Lauren's tragic story shows how quickly meningitis can strike. Vaccinations save lives and prevent serious illnesses such as meningitis and septicaemia."

The surgeon whose severely sick daughter was exposed to measles

As a paediatrician, Dr Tim Jacks was someone who knew only too well the dangers of not vaccinating children.
What he had no control over was whether youngsters his own family came into contact with had been immunised.
That hit home when his three-year-old daughter was being treated for acute lymphobastic leukaemia - a type of cancer that leaves the immune system severely compromised and resulted in her needing chemotherapy.
She was previously "fully immunised" but her condition and treatment left her highly vulnerable to catching a disease that can cause pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and, in rare cases, death.
On a weekly visit to a treatment clinic with his wife, his daughter Maggie and their ten month old son - who was at the point too young to have received the MMR vaccine - were exposed to measles from a child who had not been vaccinated.
As measles is highly contagious, they had no choice but to undergo urgent treatment to prevent them developing the disease which could have been particularly serious for Maggie.
Dr Jacks wrote in a blog that, as they were given shots of antibodies: "They screamed."
Both children had to remain in isolation for three weeks, to make sure they could not infect others.
It meant they missed a holiday they had booked that was due to be a "vacation" from the chemotherapy that Maggie had been forced to undergo.
He wrote that 195 children were exposed on the day his own were put at risk - even though measles had previously been declared "eliminated" from the US and had only come back because people were not vaccinating in the way they should.
He told a Senate hearing: "Prevention is simple - vaccinate. As immunisation rates drop, herd immunity starts to break down and this herd immunity is the only thing protecting my two children from being exposed to measles, or whatever the next outbreak is."

Left deaf and blind by rubella

Emma Blackmore was born with 31 years ago with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) and is deaf and blind.
She contracted rubella though her mother, who had been exposed to German measles during pregnancy.
Emma said: "When she discovered she was pregnant, being of a young age and frightened of the response of those around her, she didn't tell anyone or receive medical support.
"Because of this she didn't receive the rubella vaccination and now I live with a range of complex health and medical needs."
Emma, who now works for national disability charity Sense, is happy and is able to work with support but finds it upsetting that people are still not vaccinating themselves or their children as her condition has caused her and her family so much pain over the years.
The jab to prevent rubella now given to babies unless the parent opts out is the MMR vaccine - which was wrongly linked to autism by disgraced surgeon Andrew Wakefield.
Since then, claims such as those peddled by Wakefield, have spiralled, many being spread on the internet, leading some to shun the vaccinations that can help save lives.
She told the Sense website: "Ultimately, it's the mother's responsibility to choose whether to vaccinate or not, and we must say to them: 'I know you may have concerns about what a vaccine can cause, but please also look into what it can prevent before making a decision'."

The anti-vaxxer whose son caught tetanus

Svitlana Ovdiy had no intention of vaccinating her son Kyrylo after he was born, deciding it was not in his interest.
But she has since changed her views after he was struck down with a potentially deadly infection of tetanus.
Tetanus, which enters the body through an infected wound, is preventable with the DTP vaccine, which also protects against diptheria and whooping cough (pertussis),
More than 90% of children worldwide have at least one dose of DTP, but in Svitlana's home country of Ukraine, that rate has dipped as low as 45% in the last few years.
Kyrylo had to be put in a medically induced coma as he began to suffer from the symptoms, which can include painful muscle spasms, a locked jaw and a rapid heartbeat.
He ended up spending 50 days being treated in hospital.
"When he heard my voice... he started crying, calling for help, but there was nothing more I could do," Svitlana told UNICEF.
Kyrylo, three, has now fully recovered but it has changed Svitlana's perspective on whether children in Ukraine - which has just suffered one of Europe's worst measles outbreaks in years - should receive a jab.
"Now vaccination is a top priority issue in our family," she said.

The mother who nearly lost her unborn son

Living in conflict-ridden South Sudan, Biec Laat had only limited opportunities to receive the inoculations that could keep her and her family safe.
Despite major efforts to immunise the South Sudanese against infectious diseases, insecurity and lack of accurate information about the benefits have left many children unvaccinated.
While she was seven months pregnant, Biec's daughter came home sick.
Describing her daughter's skin, Biec said: "I remember it was white and even on her lips."
Within days, the illness had got worse, with the youngster developing a fever and a swollen stomach.
"My auntie said it was a sickness from the air and that it would go away," Biec said.
But it didn't go away. And then, Biec began to feel ill herself, also getting a high temperature and diarrhoea.
Within hours, she could do nothing but lie in her hammock, unable to move, praying her unborn baby would not be affected.
"I was so sick I couldn't speak for seven days. I was just lying there," she told UNICEF later.
She didn't know she had vaccine-preventable measles, a disease that spreads easily and causes an increased risk of death for pregnant mothers and their unborn children.
Fortunately, Biec and her baby survived and UNICEF carried out an urgent programme of vaccination in the area where Biec lived in order to quell the measles outbreak that was ravaging the population.
But, with access to people in many parts of the world difficult due to conflict or misunderstanding, mothers like Biec remain at risk from many diseases which could be prevented with a handful of jabs.
Biec has now said she will make sure her baby, Sebit, will be given the measles vaccine when he is old enough.

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