People don’t often die from vaccine-preventable diseases these days.
At least not in industrial countries.
Deaths from Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Today
Well, they aren’t supposed to.
Tragically, we are seeing more and more deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases every day in countries that once had these diseases under good control:
- over 100 measles deaths across Europe and a measles death in the United States a few years ago
- diphtheria deaths in Australia, Belgium, South Africa, and Venezuela
- life-threatening tetanus cases in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ukraine
- a rabies deaths in the United States in a child who’s parents skipped the post-exposure rabies vaccine
- pertussis deaths in the United States
- influenza – a record number of deaths in the United States, with most kids unvaccinated
- rotavirus – yes, unvaccinated kids still die of rotavirus in the United States in the 21st Century! In a recent outbreak in California, in which a child died, almost all of the kids were unvaccinated.
And not surprisingly, these deaths are almost always in unvaccinated children.
How Many Kids Die from Vaccine Preventable Diseases These Days?
More specifically though, do you ever wonder how many kids are dying from vaccine-preventable diseases?
It’s not something that anyone seems to talk about, especially folks who downplay the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and overstate the risks of vaccines.
a vaccine-preventable disease.
But parents should know, especially if they are thinking of delaying or skipping their child’s vaccines, that deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases still occur.
In fact, between 2015 and 2019, there have been:
- 12 deaths from rotavirus disease
- 6 deaths from pertussis
- 7 deaths from meningococcal meningitis
- 89 deaths from Streptococcus pneumonia septicemia, pneumonia, and meningitis
- 62 deaths from Hib disease, including septicemia, meningitis, and pneumonia
- 1 death from rabies
- 2 deaths from chicken pox
- 1 death from hepatitis A
While tragic, we are still fortunate that these deaths are no where close to the levels we once saw before we had vaccines to protect our kids.
Deaths from Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the Pre-Vaccine Era
In the pre-vaccine era, we used to see:
- up to 15,000 deaths and 200,000 diphtheria cases each year until the 1940s
- an average of 175,000 cases of pertussis each year in the early 1940s, with about 1,118 deaths from pertussis in 1950 and 467 deaths from pertussis in 1955
- up to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio each year until the early 1950s
- an average of about 186,000 cases of mumps each year before 1967, with an average of 40 deaths a year
- up to 500 deaths and 500,000 measles cases each year until the early 1960s
- a rubella epidemic in 1964-65 that caused 12.5 million rubella virus infections and “resulted in 11,250 therapeutic or spontaneous abortions, 2,100 neonatal deaths, and 20,000 infants born with congenital rubella syndrome”
- up to 20,000 cases of invasive H. influenzae (Hib) disease each year, with more than half of them having meningitis, and about 300 to 600 deaths, mostly children under age 2 years. In 1980, 45 children died with epiglottitis and there were an additional 222 deaths from Hib meningitis.
- up to 11,000 hospitalizations and 100 chicken pox deaths each year until 1995
- up to 17,000 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease in children younger than 5 years each year (before 2000), including 13,000 cases of bacteremia (blood infection) and 700 cases of pneumococcal meningitis, with 200 deaths.
- just over 400,000 visits to the doctor and up to 272,000 visits to the emergency room, 70,000 hospitalizations and 20 to 60 deaths each year in children under age 5 years because of rotavirus infections until 2006
But that deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases aren’t common is hardly a reason to skip or delay your child’s vaccines, as some might suggest. It is just testament to the fact that vaccines work.
That these deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases quickly rise as rates of vaccinations drop is a tragic reminder that vaccines are necessary.
And what makes it even more tragic is that this was all predicted and could have been prevented if folks didn’t listen to anti-vaccine propaganda that scares them away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.
Worldwide Deaths from Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Of course, talk of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases shouldn’t stop with the developed or industrial world.
Even as a lot of progress is being made, as more and more people get vaccinated, worldwide, there were:
- about 89,780 measles deaths, mostly young children
- about 215,000 deaths from rotavirus infections
- at least 1 million deaths from hepatitis B
- almost 200,000 deaths from Hib
- over 4,200 deaths from chicken pox
- about 50,000 deaths from meningococcal infections
- about 160,000 deaths from pertussis
- about 826,000 deaths from pneumococcal infections
- almost 60,000 deaths from rabies
- just over 70,000 deaths from tetanus
- about 222,000 deaths from typhoid
- between 30,000 to 60,000 deaths from yellow fever
As you can see, most of these diseases are still big killers around the world.
“You hear about people who don’t like to vaccinate their kids in the Western world, which I suppose is a personal choice, but when you’re out there, the result of your children not being vaccinated is that they’ll likely die, or be horribly maimed. So yes, I saw a real desire to have their children protected, and also a real understanding of it – I didn’t seem to come across anybody who went ‘What is it?’ Or ‘What does it do?’ They all seemed to know about it.”
Ewan McGregor on Cold Chain Mission
In most of these countries, the problem is access to vaccines though, not parents refusing to get their kids vaccinated.
What to Know About Deaths from Vaccine Preventable Diseases
Unvaccinated kids are still dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.
More on Deaths from Vaccine Preventable Diseases
- Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission
- CDC – What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations?
- Global Immunization: Worldwide Disease Incidence
- WHO – Six common misconceptions about immunization
- WHO – Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death and inequity worldwide
- CDC – Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999 Impact of Vaccines Universally Recommended for Children — United States, 1990-1998
- CDC – Benefits from Immunization During the Vaccines for Children Program Era — United States, 1994–2013
- Study – A risk-benefit analysis of vaccination.
- NHS – Benefits and risks of vaccination
- A Vaccine Eliminated A Deadly Killer Of Infants. So Why Do Some People Fear It?
- The reduction of diseases after the introduction of vaccines
- How Vaccines Have Changed Our World In One Graphic
- One Of My Favorite Charts On The Power Of Vaccines
- Pre-Vaccine Declines in Measles Mortality
- Yes, vaccines did save us from disease: a graphic analysis
- Vaccines work. Period.
- How Vaccines Work
- Vaccines don’t give lifelong immunity, but they are still better than natural immunity
- No more cases of meningitis reported following Michigan child’s death
- Clallam Co. woman dies of measles
- 2015 Measles Outbreak In Clallam County
- Study: Vaccine halves risk of death from flu in kids
- AAP – Unvaccinated Children Accounted for Majority of Pediatric Flu Deaths from 2010-2014
- WHO – Estimated rotavirus deaths for children under 5 years of age: 2013, 215 000
- MMWR – Three Rotavirus Outbreaks in the Postvaccine Era — California, 2017
- Why Is Meningitis Still Causing Deaths on U.S. College Campuses?
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2015 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released December, 2016.
Where are the sources for the statistics posted in this article?
the bullet pointed list at the bottom of the page (right above this)
It looks to me like the charts are hypothetical, crystal-ball stuff. If they “model” (predict) things and create a chart, it looks more convincing. But the better way to do this, is to conduct an after-the-fact observational study, because such things concretely and objectively document what has happened in fact. Based upon such things, you get to the truth about what you’re doing and the effect it’s had. For instance, it’s looking grim for the 99% vaccinated kids in the USA right now. The last numbers to come in from the CDC were in 2013, and at that time over 43% of our kids were suffering chronic “illnesses”, including brain and nervous system injuries, immune disorders, cancer (now the leading cause of death by disease in American children when it was almost unheard of in children just a few decades ago) arthritis, etc. This number is looking like it’s closer to 60% as of 2018, but the CDC now refuses to compile the totals on childhood diseases, so we’re having to put it all together ourselves. The other thing we’re studying is the health of entirely unvaccinated children and adults. So far, our sampling rate from this population, (about 3 million in the USA) exceeds the CDC’s standards for a “95% reliability rating” by a whopping 3,600%. Our study is showing that less than 1% of entirely unvaccinated children have ANY health problems at all.
Numbers define risk factors, but Pharma gives no numbers. Instead, they give us entirely unsubstantiated marketing slogans like “rare”. If the risk of all diseases and medical injuries drops to less than 1% when you avoid vaccines completely, what does simple math tell you about the risks “associated with” vaccines? The ONLY way to understand these risks is to use the basic scientific method with true “controls” (i.e., completely untreated) for comparison. 99% of American children are vaccinated, and almost all of them are up to date on the CDC’s recommended schedules. Our National disease stats show us what THEIR health is like, but tell us nothing about the health of those who’ve avoided the shots completely. This is why thecontrolgroup.org is conducting health surveys on entirely unvaccinated people. We need the NUMBERS because we no longer trust Pharma’s mere slogans about safety.
After talking with parents who take their medical advice from Dr. Google, I thought this haiku appropriate.
NATURAL SELECTION
Parents waive vaccines
Preventable disease kills
The species evolves
You are the problem on the other side of this debate.
There’s people anti-vaccination that spout off at the mouth with non-sense and then there’s people like you that make it a mockery by thinking your dry humor represents intelligence or superiority.
I am personally very selective with which vaccines to use with my children. I am extremely hesitant to throw caution to the wind with injections that go into my children.
Flint water crisis.
Teflon and PTFE being emptied into waterways AND THE EPA says its safe.. now known to cause cancer, rhenal failure, birth defects.
The notion of “the government protects us” is a herd mentality.
Many of these diseases were on a significant downturn with the advent of sanitation & sewage control.
Once more – I’m not ANTI-vaccination but I am incredibly ANTI “inject my kids with anything you tell me is safe… we’ll see what happens down the line”
Natural Selection at work right here.
Actually Noah, Donald made some pretty good points and you just responded with an ad hominem.
I’m pretty removed from this debate (I don’t have children and I am vaccinated) but it seems like a totally reasonable position to be skeptical about vaccines and to research them before giving them to your children. The more extreme position to me is the notion of just accepting whatever vaccine you are told to take.
Doctors prescribe serious opiates to people with minor pain and also prescribe amphetamine (adderall) to children that don’t need it. Does that mean I should just take their word as law? I once broke my collar bone and my doctor prescribed me oxycodone, I didn’t need it in the least but that didn’t stop him from insisting post-surgery. If I would have actually taken it, as prescribed it was enough to get me seriously addicted.
I’m not saying we have to reject modern medicine and science, I’m just not on board with the idea of taking whatever vaccine I’m told to take when that vaccine might be unnecessary, and perhaps is just being put out for profit. Is that really so hard to imagine?
If you honestly think that vaccines will do more good than harm…You’re honestly asking for your child to die. sorry about it sis.
The very thought that vaccines could hurt a person instead of helping them just shows how fucked up you and our society is.
Thank god for vaccines, vaccines helped me age to 18