Diphtheria Essay

Potential side effects and reactions to DTP immunization for most children are a slight fever and a cranky attitude for a day or two after getting the shot. Half of them will have a sore spot and some swelling where the shot was given. Occasionally, a child will have a more serious side effect. For every 330 DTP shots given, one child will get a fever of 105 degrees or more. About once in 1,750 shots a child will have convulsions or become limp or pale afterwards. The side effects of a DPT shot do not last long and have not been known to cause any permanent harm (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Many infectious diseases that once quickly spread and easily killed have been controlled or eradicated due to vaccinations. The efficacy of vaccines in reducing morbidity and mortality, particularly in children, is undeniable. Per the World Health Organization, childhood vaccinations prevent approximately 2-3 million deaths per year worldwide (WHO, 2016). In the United States, the value of immunizations is clearly displayed by comparing pre-vaccine era morbidity/mortality rates to post-vaccine era in regards to vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, prior to the diphtheria vaccine in the 1920’s, 206,000 people annually contracted the disease resulting in 15,520 deaths (History of Vaccines, 2009). However, between 2004 and 2014, only

There are several diseases around the world that have not gone away in the last few decades. For instance, HIV, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and more commonly, the Flu, and Measles are deadly diseases that still exist today. However, getting vaccinated will help fight off the disease as the vaccine releases antibodies into your bloodstream. Experts from MedlinePlus say that Pertussis, Diphtheria, and Tetanus are caused by bacteria. Diphtheria and pertussis can be spread to people from coughing and sneezing. Tetanus enters through cut and wounds. Also according to MedlinePlus, “Before vaccines, as many as 200,000 cases a year of diphtheria, 200,000 cases of pertussis, and hundreds of cases of tetanus, were reported in the United States each

Most healthcare professionals and leaders attribute vaccination as the single-most important reason for increasing the health of the human population during the past one hundred years. As a result, required immunizations are common in the U. S. and other developed countries. However, there is a segment of society who argue against vaccination due to worries that immunizing negatively impacts future health. More and more information is becoming available that presents allopathic vaccination in an ugly light. (Sharma, 2003) For the past century, vaccines for diptheria,

Vaccinations are highly considered and one of the greatest medical accomplishments of modern civilization. Childhood diseases that were common back then are now increasingly strange because of the vaccinations that we have today. The overwhelming effectiveness of these vaccinations may lead individuals to reject the benefits they may have and are more focused and concerned of the risk and the side effects they may cause to someone. Today ill be focusing on the Tetanus and Diphtheria vaccine also known as the T.D shot, the flu shot, and the Human papillomavirus vaccine also known as HPV. I will also be addressing different issues about vaccine safety and the history behind mandatory vaccines.

Have you ever wondered why you or anyone else should be vaccinated? In fact, “90% of kids in the United States are fully immunized against ailments that once killed thousands of children each year” (Heusel). In this research paper, you will learn about the most common vaccines that children and/or adults can receive to protect them against harmful diseases. The most common vaccines include influenza, DPT, MMR, and varicella, also known as chickenpox. Vaccinating your kids and yourself is very important to remaining healthy and prevent many serious diseases (Heusel).

With international turmoil reaching an all-time high this day-and-age, we, as a nation, must have a well thought out plan on what to do in case we were to be attacked via deadly viruses. What precautions are ethical to be taken when a disease is spread through bioterrorism? Bioterrorism, in a sense, is just as devastating as a direct terrorist attack that causes violent casualties; so what separates people from either having to get vaccinated or quarantined when they practice something against vaccinations? Should health care officials who treat these patients also be isolated? Should some freedoms be restricted in order to protect the rest of the healthy population? Will the vaccines be forced upon young children and old adults? It comes down to our safety as a country and

This schedule is designed to protect children at their most vulnerable states. If a parent chooses to give some vaccines to their child and not others, theses vaccines may not be beneficial anymore and could actually increase the chances of contracting diseases. These vaccines protect children and others from a multiplicity of ailments. The vaccines can protect someone from chickenpox, measles, pertussis, polio, rotavirus, and many more diseases. These ailments can often be life threatening, especially with a child of a young.3 It has been shown that when infants don’t receive the DTap vaccination their immunity to pertussis disease is decreased. Consequently, these children have a 19-fold to 28-fold chance of becoming infected with pertussis bacteria. This can cause brain damage, respiratory failure, or even death.4 In 2012 and 2013 the highest levels of pertussis were reported since 1955. A report from the CDC estimate that there were about 1.4 cases of pertussis per 1000 infants younger than 6 months old between the years 2012 and 2013. Out of 5351 cases of pertussis in children under 7 years old, 40 % of them either did not receive the pertusiss vaccination, or did not report being vaccinated.7

It is essential to remember, “diphtheria was one of the most feared childhood diseases, claiming more than 10,000 lives a year in the United States during the 1920s.” (Margaret C. Fisher, 2015) Today, according to the CDC “there have been no reported cases of diphtheria in the U.S. since 2003. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014) Nonetheless, these illnesses still exist in the world and can find their way to the U.S. and threaten vulnerable children unless they are vaccinated. “In the 1940s and 1950s, polio paralyzed and even killed children by the thousands. At one point in time, the measles affected nearly a half-million U.S. children every year. Almost everyone in the United States got it at some point during childhood—and it sometimes caused complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis.” (Margaret C. Fisher, 2015) As a consequence of diminishing vaccination rates, the diseases are making a comeback resulting in avoidable illness and death. “Preventable diseases like measles and mumps are occurring with increasing frequency in the U.S. despite the availability of an effective vaccine.” (Lewis, 2015) Besides protecting the vaccinated child from these dangers, vaccinations protect those in the community that are unable to receive vaccines, such as babies too young for vaccines, people with compromised immune systems, and those with allergies. The

Fatigue, fever, headaches and nausea, all common symptoms of an everyday cold, the start of the flu or even polio. However, with polio the symptoms continue to worsen until the person develops muscle weakness, loss of reflexes, and flaccid paralysis. Eventually the person loses the ability to walk and carry out daily functions without the use of assistant devices. Work becomes difficult, due to the rapid fatigue and flaccid paralysis, and multiple domains of their life are significantly affected. Through the mid-20th century parents feared their child could become infected with this virus, causing their life to change forever. Luckily, in 1979 polio was declared officially eradicated in the United States. So why is it, thirty-seven years after its declared eradication date, there is still a fear of this disease? The answer is fairly simple.

Influenza is common and affects people of all ages and there is a major difference in how sick you get when you suffer from flu. Many elderly people and people with impaired immune systems are often very sick. To avoid more vulnerable people affected by the flu, it is recommended that the elderly, the chronically ill and pregnant people vaccinated against influenza in October / November.

Inactivated influenza vaccines are of three types namely the whole virus vaccines, split virus vaccines and subunit vaccines (http://www.who.int/biologicals/vaccines/influenza/en/).

Over the past 20 years or so our nation has seen a sharp increase in the rate of children diagnosed with autism. This increase has caused much alarm, as it should, throughout our country. With this drastic increase has come the obvious question, why. Parents who watch their children slip away are devastated and left without answers as to why. A popular theory suggests that childhood vaccines are the culprit for this devastating diagnosis. The catalyst for this preposterous idea was made prevalent in a fraudulent research paper published in a British Medical Journal. There has never once been a study that supports this theory in any way. In an online article at healthychildren.org, a list of studies that support the safety of vaccines is published.

I chose diphtheria for my term paper because it was a fatal disease before 1920 killing more children than any other disease. Each year there were more than 200,000 cases of diphtheria in the United States. Nowadays this disease is not that widespread and limited mostly to the countries of the Third World. This was achieved due to discovery of immunization. However, we still observe cases of diphtheria in the developed countries that do not have regular immunizations (Frey and Tish 2011). In 2014, there were more than 7,000 outbreaks of this disease in the world. Taking into account that 5-10% of those cases resulted in death, we should not underrate diphtheria as a life-threating pathogen (“Clinicians”, accessed April 10,2016).

Tetanus is also known as lockjaw causes painful tightening of the muscles all over the body, with 2 out of 10 cases leading to death. As for Diphtheria, many people have heard of this disease, however, few can attest to its effect on an individual. Diphtheria causes copious layers of mucus in the throat that leads to breathing problems, failure of the heart and even death. “The mortality rate in 1921 was very high it resulted in more than 15,000 deaths, but since the vaccine era only 15 cases have been reported worldwide since 2004” (Vaccine and Immunizations 2014).( See image on page 6 for visual) Now let’s get to the side effects of this vaccine: Fever, redness and swelling were vaccine was given and soreness and tenderness at the vaccine site. However, there are a few more serious reactions: seizures 1 out if 14,000, non-stop crying for more than 3 hours 1 out of 1,000 and high fever over 1 out of 16,000. (“Vaccine Information Statements”2016”). Keep in mind these reactions are very uncommon. According to the CDC in 2014 a total of 1,737 deaths accrued from the vaccines. If you think about it that is significantly lower than over 15,000 deaths caused by Diphtheria alone. If the well-being of a child is not enough to convince you that vaccines are beneficial, the money saved from an extended hospital stay will.