How can a host carry a disease and not know?

[Mommy2anangel]

Pretty much what the title says. I keep getting "no matter how healthy your child is, they can be a host for diseases and my susceptible child get it"

How can a host carry a disease and not exhibit symptoms/not know etc??

[slmommy]

You can have an infection and be asymptomatic. Or a mild case of something without strong "classic" symptoms. Hep A is often asymptomatic in children, but they can still transmit it. 

A lot of vaxed, especially recently vaxed kids can be shedding things to susceptible people too. Pretty much any live virus vaccine. And with pertussis, it seems to be that it does not prevent transmission, so a vaxed person could think they have a mild annoying cough and be spreading it. In that case they don't know what they actually have, assume it's not serious, whereas an unvaxed individual would probably know.

Vaccines also wear off. You can't assume anything about what diseases someone may or not be carrying because of their vax status!

[Bokonon]

The people who say that don't really understand how vaccines work, or illness for that matter.

Anyone can be a host for an illness, regardless of their vax status.  The vaccinated are actually more likely to be carriers because they may shed the live virus shortly after getting vaccinated, or they may have a subclinical illness and not realize it, thus being more prone to not take proper measures to prevent exposing others.

Whomever is saying that to you is using a weak argument.  Since you said that you keep getting that argument thrown at you, I'd recommend not engaging with that person and not sharing your child's vax status.  You have every right and responsibility to keep your OWN child healthy as you see fit.  For some people, that means vaccinating, and for others it doesn't.

[Asiago]

Originally Posted by Bokonon 

Anyone can be a host for an illness, regardless of their vax status.  The vaccinated are actually more likely to be carriers because they may shed the live virus shortly after getting vaccinated, or they may have a subclinical illness and not realize it, thus being more prone to not take proper measures to prevent exposing others.

Whomever is saying that to you is using a weak argument.  Since you said that you keep getting that argument thrown at you, I'd recommend not engaging with that person and not sharing your child's vax status.  You have every right and responsibility to keep your OWN child healthy as you see fit.  For some people, that means vaccinating, and for others it doesn't.

I agree.

Subclinical infection. It's asymtomatic infection, sometimes it develops into clinical infection and sometimes not.

For what it's worth, a child can be asymtomatic with the common cold, Coxsackie or RSV and so on. Studies show that almost half of the children infant age carry a virus and are asymptomatic, so can infect others.

In other words, it is not uncommon for children and adults to spread disease and be asymtomatic. It's also why disease stats are not accurate (just one of the reasons).

The person who said that to you should have probably followed up their statement with "how DO you keep your child so healthy since disease is everywhere?" It could have opened up a nice dialogue.

Edited by Asiago - 4/6/12 at 9:54am

[emmy526]

well,  a person can be a herpes2 carrier and not know it, infecting others...just like grandma, who got her  TDaP vaccine,  came down with the sniffles shortly after, (which was really a mild form of whooping cough for an adult), thought nothing of the sniffle and cough, and unknowingly spread pertussis to a baby.   Those are a couple examples of how a person can unknowingly infect others. 

[Mommy2anangel]

Thanks for the responses. :) 

[philomom]

Typhoid Mary always felt fine and wanted to work. She refused to believe that a healthy person who worked could be spreading disease. They finally had to put her on an island get her to stop working with the public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by philomom 

Typhoid Mary always felt fine and wanted to work. She refused to believe that a healthy person who worked could be spreading disease. They finally had to put her on an island get her to stop working with the public.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary

Exactly.  She had immunity to the illness and was still a vector, just like a vaccinated person in theory.