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Running Head: MMR VACCINATION

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MM Vaccination
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MMR VACCINATION

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Abstract
MMR Vaccine is a vaccination that targets measles, Mumps, and Rubella. The
implementation of the vaccine is faced with controversy over ethical issues, the safety, and
efficacy of the vaccine among the target population. While numerous studies have been
conducted on various issues surrounding the MMR vaccine, little research has examined the
efficacy of the vaccination in achieving the goals of eradicating the disease among the target
population. This paper seeks to examine the efficacy and safety of the vaccine in relation to the
recent outbreak to measles. The paper will conduct a meta-analysis of previous literature that has
studied the administration of MMR vaccination on children. The literature will be sampled from
various databases with a focus on the keyword on its safety and efficacy in fighting infections.
Using the findings, the paper will make recommendations on how vaccination of MMR can help
achieve health intervention goals in a diverse population. The paper will use the evidence from a
meta-analysis of the literature to prove that MMR vaccination is effective in eradicating Measles
and thus should be practiced. This paper argues that MMR-Vaccination is effective and safe in
preventing Mumps, Measles, and Rubella among children and adults with less adverse effects,
and thus should be implemented in compliance with the relevant health standards and policies.
Keywords: MMR-Vaccine, Autism, Efficacy, Safety, Mumps, Measles, and Rubella

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
MMR ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Literature review ............................................................................................................................. 6
The Recent Outbreaks of Measles ............................................................................................. 12
How Vaccinations Work in the Body ....................................................................................... 13
How Vaccines make the Immune System Work to Protect against Invasions.......................... 15
How They Work In Society ...................................................................................................... 16
Analysis and Evaluation ............................................................................................................... 17
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 19
Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 20
References ..................................................................................................................................... 23
Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 24

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Introduction
MMR-Vaccination is a vaccine administered on children at an early age to prevent them
from contracting Mumps, Measles, and Rubella. Initially, the vaccine was been administered in
children aged 9 months old due to the high prevalence of such diseases among this population.
However, the age was raised to 12 months after epidemiological studies showed that the
transmission focused on children above one year old (Gouma, Hinke, Schurink-van’t Klooster, et
al., 2016). There are many theories that have been postulated over the efficacy of the
vaccination, its safety on children, and the ethics surrounding the manner in which it is
administered. In addition, critics have raised concerns over the manner, methods, and procedure
used to administer MMR-Vaccination over a number of health concerns
While some critics base their argument on practical experience and the testimony from
parents who have had adverse experience with the children who were subjected to MMRVaccination, others base their argument on the long-term adverse effects of the MMRVaccination. However, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that the MMR-Vaccination is
ineffective or harmful since the only issues that has been publicly raised is the few cases of
adverse reaction and side effects manifested in a few children at later strategies of life (Aquino,
Donzelli, De Franco, et al. 2017).
Due to the lack of founded logical reason, such argument is admissible because all
vaccines, just like drugs have negative effects and adverse reactions, depending on the post
management measures taken by the patients or the parents of the patients. Therefore, the adverse
effects of the MMR-Vaccine may be blamed partly on the poor post-vaccinations intervention
measure which exposes the children to long-term adverse effects in their later stages of life
(Buttenheim, Sethuraman, Omer, et al., 2015).

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MMR
MMR-Vaccination is a combination of vaccines meant to protect infants from Mumps,
measles, and Rubella infection at their early stages of life. It is a safe vaccination that has been
approved by the relevant authorities and thus meets the required ethical and moral threshold.
MMR-Vaccine has been proven to be effective in protecting children from contracting measles
infection (Kowalzik, Faber & Knuf, 2018). The vaccine is believed to be safe with minimal
adverse reactions and side effects, contrary to the misconceptions that have engulfed its
implementation.
For children aged between 6 and 11 months, CDC (2019) recommends that one dose of
the MMR-Vaccine be administered without fail. For children aged above 12 months old, CDC
recommends that 2 doses be administered with intervals of at least 28 days before the second
dosage is administered. The same dosage is also recommended for adults and teenagers who do
not show significant immunity to the disease. A travel notice has also been issued by the CDC
that requires all parents to vaccinate their children before traveling to foreign countries.
However, a person who provides evidence of adequate vaccination, evidence of immunity from
laboratory tests, birth in the United States, or a laboratory confirmation of previous measles
infection is exempted from the mandatory vaccination before traveling to a foreign country. It is
important to note that following these intervention policies and procedures would reduce the
risks of side effects, thus enhancing the efficacy of the MMR-Vaccines and proving its safety on
the person vaccinated (Chauhan, Mahajan, Mehta, et al., 2019).
Rubella, mumps, and measles are highly infectious conditions with serious and fatal
complications if not prevented. However, the introduction of the MMR-Vaccine has helped
many countries to reduce the prevalence and transmission of these three infectious diseases, thus

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mitigating against encephalitis and meningitis (Wichmann, Cleveland & Rubin, 2016). This
vaccine is given to infants as a routine vaccination schedule within months after birth and then
given a second vaccination usually at the age of 40 months. However, in rare cases, the vaccine
may be administered on babies aged six months during an outbreak of measles that exposes the
children to measles viruses.
Notwithstanding this precaution, children below six months are not subjected to a routine
MMR vaccination because they get rubella, mumps, and measles antibodies from their mothers
which may work against the MMR-Vaccine, thus leading to reduced efficacy of the vaccine. It is
for this reason that the MMR-Vaccine is administered at approximately 12 months when the
antibodies of the measles, mumps, and rubella have disappeared from the child’s body (Chauhan,
Mahajan, Mehta, et al., 2019). During this period, the MMR-Vaccine is administered as a single
injection and then a second injection follows after 28 days.
In older children, the MMR-Vaccine is given to those who missed the vaccination at their
early childhood days. MMR-Vaccine is given to female anticipating pregnancy to protect them
from the measles infection to prevent possible birth defects and miscarriage (Unnikrishnan,
Matheiken & Fahad, 2018). For non-immune adults, the MMR-Vaccine should be given upon
meeting the specified criteria provided by the relevant authorities.
Literature Review
The presentation of scientific facts to disapprove misconception surrounding the
admission of MMR-Vaccination has yielded fruits in helping the parents and guardians to
understand the need to accept the vaccine as a safe intervention. Going by the statistics on the
number of children who have effectively coped with the MMR-Vaccination inspires the strongest

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belief that the vaccination is beneficial and effective in protecting the patients rather than causing
harm to them.
To begin with, the argument that there is a high link between MMR-and autism was
disapproved by the research conducted by Wichmann, Cleveland & Rubin (2016) which noted
that despite the increase in cases of autisms, the cases were not in any way linked to the
introduction of MMR vaccine. The misconception over the link between autism and MMRVaccination was further debunked by CDC (2019) after they established that many cases of
autisms were on the rise due to the changes in the diagnosis used by healthcare providers to
examine autism signs and symptoms.
With the changing manifestations of autisms and advancement of medical technology,
new ways were devised to diagnose autisms which could not detect the conditions at an early
stage, thereby increasing the risks of the prevalence of the disease to an alarming rate (Jain,
Marshall, Buikema, et al., 2016). This breakthrough finding was further confirmed by the study
conducted by Omer & Yildirim (2019) which noted that the parents with children who showed
signs of autisms were misguided by the theories surrounding the link between MMR-Vaccine
autism without any tangible evidence to substantiate that claim.
The study conducted by Omer & Yildirim (2019) reviewed 67 previous literature on the
safety of MMR-Vaccine and concluded that out of the sample population used for the study, 99%
showed a positive outcome with minimal adverse reaction from the vaccination. The study was
conducted among children in the United States and concluded that there was a high correlation
between the MMR-vaccination and the posit...