World Immunization Week, celebrated in the last week of April, aims to recognize the long-term effects that the opposition to vaccination has on the lives of children. It also highlights the collective action needed to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

Remember me:

I was eight 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 characteristic 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 secondary effects of measles. They didn’t know about subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, which is a progressive neurological disorder that can occur with measles. 

Kids with measles can develop memory loss, jerky movements and seizures. Some go blind. Those affected could progress to a persistent vegetative 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 regrets? 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 rehabilitation 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, and many of my initial problems have returned. Every day I feel the long-haul effects of my initial poliovirus 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, weakness and exhaustion that comes from infection by a virus. Now parents can guard their children against polio. 

Remember me:

It was in 1980 when I caught the mumps. My parents were anti-vaxxers, so I was never immunized against mumps. 

Following the initial onset, I developed meningitis and encephalitis. In addition to losing part of my hearing, I became sterile. 

This would have never happened if my parents had immunized me against mumps. 

I was the only kid in the neighborhood who caught it. All the rest were immunized.

I paid the price of my parents’ willful neglect. I carry the awful effects of mumps with me all the days of my life because I was not vaccinated. 

Remember me:

My mother was an anti-vaxxer. When it was suggested that she should be immunized against rubella, she refused. 

She was pregnant with me when she came down with a case of measles. 

As a result, I was born deaf. I had cataracts in both eyes and multiple other problems. This could have all been avoided if she had been immunized. 

Other children born to mothers infected with measles suffered cardiovascular oddities that could not be repaired. Some babies died, although surgeons tried to repair the damage their little bodies had from measles. 

You can’t imagine what life has been like for me because my mother refused an immunization. Every mother gets a choice to protect their child from vaccine-preventable diseases. I wish mine had taken responsibility to safeguard me. 

 Remember me:

I was never immunized for childhood diseases because my parents were anti-vaxxers. They did not listen to scientists and medical professionals who cautioned people to vaccinate to prevent the spread of whooping cough. 

I developed whooping cough when I was 12. Since then, I have suffered from chronic lung problems, visual problems and epilepsy. 

If only my parents had immunized me, my life could be so different. 

Thank your parents if they and you were vaccinated to prevent little kids from suffering for a lifetime with the endless repercussions of whooping cough.

Michael Kossove is professor emeritus and adjunct professor of microbiology at Touro University, School of Health Sciences, New York City. Prof. Kossove is a polio survivor and an international public speaker.

Susan L. Schoenbeck, MSN, R.N. is adjunct faculty at Walla Walla University School of Nursing in Portland, OR. She is a polio survivor.