JEWISH WORLD

JEWISH WORLD • APRIL 12-18, 2024 11 hearing, I became sterile. This would have never happened if my parents had immunized me Remember Me: It was in 1980 when I caught the mumps. My parents were anti-vaxx- ers, so I was never immunized against mumps. Following the initial onset, I de- veloped meningitis and encephali- tis. In addition to losing part of my By MICHAEL KOSSOVE & SUSAN L. SCHOENBECK World Immunization Week, celebrated in the last week of April, aims to recog- nize the long-term effects anti-vaccina- tion has on the lives of children and to highlight the collective action needed to promote the use of vaccines to pro- tect people of all ages against disease. Remember Me: I was 8 years old when a measles epidemic broke out in my neighborhood. My parents did not believe in vaccination. One night I came down with the charac- teristic rash and the common cold type symptoms. My parents thought that my signs of measles would eventually all go away. They had no idea about the sec- ondary effects of measles. They didn’t know about subacute scle- rosing panencephalitis which is a progressive neurological disorder that may occur with measles. Kids with measles can develop memory loss, jerky movements, and sei- zures. Some go blind. Those affect- ed may progress to a persistent veg- etative state before they die. My parents couldn’t wait until I was born. Now they come to visit my grave occasionally with heads bowed down. Their faces seem sad. Do they have regret? The child they hoped for was forever broken by their decision not to vaccinate. Remember Me: It was the summer of 1954 when I got sick. I was five years old. I couldn’t move or breathe on my own. In the hospital, I was put into a metal tank called an iron lung. I had polio. I spent 10 weeks confined in the iron lung. When they took me out, I went through extensive rehabilita- tion to get my damaged muscles to partially work again. I grew up wearing leg braces and walking with crutches. Now I’m suffering from post-polio syndrome (PPS), and many of my initial problems have returned. Every day I feel the long-haul effects of my initial polio virus infection. There was no vaccine for polio when I contracted it, but there is now. If the vaccine existed at that time, I know my parents would have had me first in line to get it. If I had been vaccinated, I would not be feeling the daily pain, weak- ness, and exhaustion that comes from infection by a virus. Now parents can guard their children against polio. You can’t imagine what life has been like for me because my mother refused an immunization. She made a terrible choice. My parents come to visit my grave occasionally with heads bowed down. The child they hoped for was forever broken by their decision not to vaccinate. A Note To Anti-Vaxxers To the many who are members of our community: take heed continued on page 27 MEDICINE “Best-selling personal finance primer available on Amazon”