In recent weeks we have experienced an outbreak of Elgorri cases in our environment. In Gipuzkoa, for example, 21 cases have been reported, all of them children or under 35 years of age. Two of them have had to be hospitalized for severe penumies, although in the end they have been restored normally.

In Spain, 1,300 cases were recorded in 2011, while in France more than 5,000, 300 cases of severe pneumonia and six deaths were recorded. In 2004, there were only two cases and the World Health Organization expected their disappearance by the year 2000. What has happened to bring about this sudden onset and to change the trend?

This new occurrence is related to vaccinations. In Gipuzkoa, for example, eighteen of the 21 patients were not vaccinated, and other countries also have similar data. They say that 5% of parents do not want to vaccinate their children because of the possible consequences that this entails, and that the number of non-vaccinated is increasing.

Vaccination, besides being an individual decision, is also a social decision, as it uses the mechanism of “herd effect”. In such contagious diseases as measles, if the children in the area are vaccinated, the virus cannot spread and is lost there. But if there is a percentage of unvaccinated children, the virus stays in place and puts other children at risk, as well as adults who have not passed the disease. Therefore, vaccinating one child protects others (including unvaccinated children), and not vaccinating puts everyone else at risk. Ask those over the age of 70, especially grandmothers, about measles. The fact that something has not lived relieves consciousness.

Much has been said about the risks of vaccines, but they have not yet been proven to have a negative effect. It has been proven that the scientific work that linked them to autism is false and today mercury has been completely eliminated from vaccines. Although it would appear to be a longer dispute, for its own sake and for the sake of those around it, please put them on.