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Vaccines are safe, economical
By Luke Holden (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-11 11:21

Vaccines are safe, economical

Last week I took the H1N1 vaccine and I have never been happier.

As a British expat living and working in Beijing, my stereotypical response to being offered the vaccine should include undertaking a disproportionate amount of research, asking everyone I knew about notorious horror stories, and finally deciding I would be safer without it.

But I have lived in China for six years now and much of my British decision-making process - to be slow, clever and economical - has been replaced with the grabby moves of a child at Christmas, snapping up whatever I can for free without too much concern for my livelihood.

I grew up on English vaccinations and recall many of the debates. But as a child those decisions, and of course the responsibility, were handled by my parents. Two years after moving to China, however, I became a father and suddenly I was made accountable. Over the last three years, I have sat beside my toddler as he was injected with more than 20 different vaccinations. These inoculations were mostly free - my son is a Chinese citizen - and after undertaking as much research as possible, I decided not to reject a single one. The results have been consistently positive and Henry is safer than he has ever been.

The principle of any vaccine is to inject a small amount of it into the body to build up antibodies against it. After doing this repeatedly, Henry is now protected against numerous disabling or lethal illnesses. H1N1 is nothing like those diseases and is instead just a slightly stronger version of flu. And so it was, after reading that my chances of getting it this winter were already pretty reasonable, I opted for a lesser version on my terms and in my time.

This decision wasn't completely self-centered either. Right now there is no vaccine available to the general public and this means my wife is not protected. My son goes to a private playschool and is not offered it either. Simply because I take the subway every day and work in a crowded room, I reasoned it was true that protecting myself meant protecting them.

I remained extremely happy about my decision until Friday last week. Despite his recent general flu vaccination, my son managed to bring it (not H1N1) back from playschool as a present for my wife. After waiting unsuccessfully to see if they could fight it naturally, we all took a trip to one of Beijing's most famous pediatrics hospital yesterday morning armed with a single goal - to buy Tamiflu.

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Last week it was reported the Chinese-made version was on shelves in Beijing for prescription holders. Unfortunately, it didn't come as much of a surprise to me, a seasoned expat, when our Chinese doctor - the most expensive available - hadn't heard of the English name.

After discovering the Chinese name ourselves, he told us the hospital didn't stock it. We asked the hospital pharmacy and discovered they did have an imported version from Switzerland for a staggering 276 yuan per packet. By the end of the morning, the total cost of medicine and treatment almost hit 700 yuan and we went home poor and exhausted.

This horrible experience confirmed my conclusion that had my family been able to take a working vaccine well in advance, the result would not only have been safer and easier, but also a lot more economical. In the end the decision to take the H1N1 vaccine comes down to the balancing of its pros and cons, and with almost everything else, a little bit of blind faith. For me at least, I have no regrets.