One Canadian father admits that his three sons weren’t vaccinated prior to their family trip to Vietnam. All three boys have contracted measles symptoms, making the father realize that his anti-vaccination stance hurt his family more than helped.

According to Canada’s CBC, a father by the name of Emmanuel Bilodeausays that when his children were all born more than a decade ago, he and his ex-wife were very anti-vaccinations. As a result, none of his sons were vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). Many in the anti-vaccination field believe that the vaccine causes autism, although that theory has never been confirmed. Both the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and the BC Center for Disease Control state that there is no study or theory that confirms the vaccine causes autism in children.

"We worried 10-12 years ago because there was a lot of debate around the MMR vaccine," said Bilodeau in an interview with the CBC. "Doctors were coming out with research connecting the MMR vaccine with autism. So we were a little concerned."​​

The father-of-three says that he and his family took a trip to Vietnam in January. His 11-year-old son began showing measles symptoms the moment they arrived back home in Vancouver. Bilodeau is now the center of a major measles outbreak in Vancouver but insists that he didn’t vaccinate his children because of his distrust in science a decade ago.

Bilodeau further stated that he and his ex-wife weren’t anti-vaccination per say, but that they were just cautious parents who didn’t want an onslaught of vaccinations to have a negative impact on their children’s bodies and overall health. Instead of getting the MMR shot, Bilodeau says he and the mother of his three sons were holding out on the possibility that a vaccine would be produced in three separate shots so the process wasn’t such a “hard hit” on a child. Because they didn’t find a doctor who could administer three separate shots, they just opted to not have the MMR vaccine altogether.

According to doctors, researchers and health professionals, the MMR vaccine helps prevent measles, mumps and rubella. It helps the body make antibodies to fight off the disease. Typically, a child will receive two doses of the vaccine – one at 12 months of age and the second one by the time they are 5 or 6 years of age.

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