I appreciate the memory Jay Evensen shared in his piece “Opinion: Another disease makes a comeback”. I too share memories of rotavirus before the development of a vaccine. Albeit, my memory involves nights in the Emergency Room putting IV’s in little people who were dehydrated and exhausted, as were their parents. The difference, however, was that Dr. Mkopi was dealing with deaths in Tanzania, and I was dealing with illness, inconvenience, medical expenses and parental loss of income.
Rotavirus is again surging in the U.S., along with other vaccine preventable infections, as less than 74% of US children are vaccinated against rotavirus. The recurrences of these preventable infections is disheartening. How much illness must happen before routine safe immunizations are again readily accepted?
As a now retired pediatrician, I clearly remember the world before and after this vaccine was introduced, and explaining to parents its benefits. Then there were the vaccines against some of the bacterial pathogens that cause meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis in the young. Those vaccines changed the world for children, their parents, and healthcare workers. Hopefully, the current move away from immunizations will end as the experience of these illnesses increases.
Leslye Heilig,
Great Barrington, Massachusetts