>> Hi, my name is Paul Offit.
I'm talking to you today from the Vaccine
Education Center, here at Children's Hospital
of Philadelphia.
The most common question that we get asked
here at the center is, "Do babies get too
many vaccines?"
It's an understandable question.
In the first few years of life, babies get
vaccines to prevent 14 different infections.
That can mean as many as 27 inoculations during
that first few years of life; it can mean
as many as six shots at one time; and I don't
care how smart you are about viruses or immunology,
it's hard to watch your baby go through that.
So, the question is, "Is it too many?"
Well, so let's take a step back.
When babies are in the womb, they're in a
sterile environment.
When they enter the birth canal
and the world, they're not.
And very quickly they have living on the surface
of their body, trillions of bacteria.
I am not just trying to sound like Carl Sagan
here, literally trillions of bacteria.
You actually have roughly a 100 trillion bacteria
on the surface of your body -- that's more
than you have cells in your body.
Now each bacterium, each single bacterium, has between 2,000 and 6,000 immunological components.
Now, by immunological component, what I mean
is the complex sugar that sits on the outside
of the bacteria, so-called polysaccharide,
or the proteins that make up the bacteria.
Viruses also have proteins, and those are
considered also immunological components.
Now, if you add up all the immunological components
that are currently contained in vaccines,
it adds up to about 160.
So think about that -- 160 immunological components,
which consist of viral proteins, bacterial
proteins, or bacterial polysaccharide -- as
compared to the trillions of bacteria, each
bacterium of which contains 2,000 to 6,000
immunological components.
So, I think literally what you are exposed
to in vaccines is a drop in the ocean compared
to what you're exposed to in daily life.
Frankly, I think a cut on your knee is a greater
challenge to your immune system than are vaccines.
I think the common cold, which can reproduce
itself thousands of times in your body, is
a greater challenge to your immune system
than vaccines.
So, I think the short answer to the question
"Can babies tolerate so many vaccines given
in the first few years of life?" is yes, because
frankly they encounter far more in their environment
than they're ever going to encounter in vaccines.
Thank you.
