Psittacosis Case Study Essay

Provide a tentative diagnosis for each of the following case studies. Write at least one paragraph for each, justifying your answer in terms of the DSM-V criteria for that particular disorder. Remember, writing matters, as you will be judged on the quality of your communication as well as on the justification for the tentative diagnoses.

Significance: The topic is very significant to my audience because unvaccinated children are becoming a rising problem and old diseases thought to have been eradicated have resurfaced and new and soon to become parents need to be educated.

Protecting a child’s health is very important to parents! That is why they should vaccinate them as young children. All children should be required to have vaccinations in order to start school in every state. Each year, about 85% of the world’s youth receive vaccines that protect them against several diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumococcus, and many more. Even with great success and improvements with vaccinations, more than 3 million people die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases. An estimate of about 1.5 million of these deaths are in children less than five years old. Of the top ten reported cases of those deaths, several are infectious. (Global Immunizations: Worldwide Disease Incidence, 2017). However, some parents feel vaccines are not safe because they are convinced vaccines are the cause of autism. Nevertheless, Vaccinations are very much necessary. There are many benefits to vaccinating children early. Immunizations should be mandatory because they can save a child’s life, save families time and money, and eliminate diseases forever.

Vaccines have saved many children from sickness, death and have terminated a large part of infectious diseases in the world. That being said, whether to immunize or not is the ongoing question parents face each day. On one hand, questions are raised about the safety of some vaccines because of rare but serious adverse effects that have been attributed to them. On the other hand, vaccines are known to help prevent death and serious illnesses. Hence, this paper explores the pros and cons of children's vaccines.

People in the United States are urged from day one that vaccinations are important for the well being of their children and for everyone that your child may come in contact with. Recently, childhood vaccinations have been stigmatized as a negative process. Parents have become increasingly concerned about the effects and side effects of vaccinations. The problem being, that the infectious diseases that are being prevented for, are being forgotten about. Vaccinations have been doing their job in protecting us for so long that the infectious diseases are less scary than vaccination process itself (Austvoll-Dahlgren & Helseth, 2012, p. 271). Vaccinations are a preventative measure and one that will continue to be implemented in children for their individual safety and for the safety of the public. However, it is still the families’ choice whether or not they want to proceed with the vaccination process or not. Most vaccinations are going to be administered by a registered nurse, therefore, it is the role of the nurse to supply information, and answer questions when counseling families through this process. The goal is to make people feel as comfortable and as informed as possible so that they can make a decision on whether to submit to the vaccination process or not.

Controversy concerning the risks of vaccinations will always exist. As is the nature of a preventative intervention, it is difficult to rationalize giving a completely healthy child an injection that is known to have varying degrees of sides affects5. Additionally, these injections are to provide immunity to children for diseases that have an extremely low risk of circulating within a population. Since these vaccines have been able to protect so many individuals from experiencing these dangerous infections, most parents do not even have personal experiences regarding the impact of these diseases. As such, many parents do not see the vaccine-preventable disease as a threat to their child. This often causes parents to not fully understand the risk their child has for contracting a disease and the subsequent danger of a vaccine-preventable disease infection verses the potential side effect of a vaccine which is normally only mild to moderate discomfort for their child15.

In the 1998 article in the Lancet, Wakefield studied 12 children “who, after a period of apparent normality, lost acquired skills, including communication” (Wakefield, Murch, Anthony, Linnell, Casson, Malik, Berelowitz, Dhillon, Thomson, Harvey, Valentine, Davies, & Walker-Smith,1998). All 12 children were reported to show behavioral symptoms after receiving the vaccination. After receiving the vaccination, the features associated with exposure collectively included fever/delirium, rash, self-injury, repetitive behavior, loss of self-help, convulsion, gaze avoidance, diarrhea, disinterest, lack of play, vomiting, and recurrent viral pneumonia. In 8 of the 12 children, the beginning of behavioral problems was linked to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination by either the parents or by the child’s

“As healthy as my lifestyle seemed, I contracted measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox, some of which are vaccine preventable” (Parker 1). This quote by vaccine advocate Amy Parker, a woman who was not vaccinated as a child, shows just a glimpse into the life of an unvaccinated individual. Parents who do not vaccinate their children claim many different reasons for their decision. Three of the most popular reasons are: religious grounds, health problems as a result from vaccines, and the belief that the illnesses are rare. Each of these reasons can be proven as nonessential in the anti-vaccine argument.

The start of the vaccine was the year 1855 when the smallpox vaccines were mandatory for the school children. The state of Massachusetts passed the first U.S. law, mandating vaccination for the school children. This practice continues still today. Now in this modern age that the newborn baby receives 49 vaccines by the age of 6. Indeed, vaccines have saved a number of lives until today. This is one of the best action taken place for humanity. Moreover, the majority population doesn’t recognize in general that vaccines have toxins in them. For this reason, a certain population gets side effects through receiving vaccines. According to CDC data, there are about 30,000 cases of adverse reactions per year in 2015. The stories of those individuals injured by vaccines are incredibly moving. Accordingly, we need to take a look closer to this issue of our society.

Looking at the childhood vaccination controversy gives one an in-depth view into one of the more obvious conflict between the society and the vaccine manufacturers. The controversy is whether the government can require parents to vaccinate their children. Many families do not wish to do so based on religious and other reasons. Some believe the risk of catastrophic side effects is too high. Several childhood diseases have been nearly eradicated in the United States because of the required immunizations such as polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, etc. Some mild side effects include fever and local inflammation at the site of the injection. Some children can have severe reactions, which include seizures, autistic type reactions, and death. Parents

Through the rise of technological advances in medicine, the vaccine has changed the world for the greater good of the human race. Making a great triumph and virtually eliminating an array of life-threatening diseases, from smallpox to diphtheria, thus adding approximately thirty years to many humans’ life spans. Although, a new complication has arisen, possibly linking neurological digression with this rise of new vaccines. Such a digression has forced parents to exempt their children from receiving vaccinations and brought forth mental anguish affecting the minds of many.

Common side effects from vaccines can range from redness or swelling of the skin where the shot was administered, to severe allergic reactions. For most patients, these side effects are very minor, and go away within a couple of days (“Possible Side-effects”, 2015). All of these common side effects seem to fail in comparison to what symptoms a person may experience if they were infected with the disease these vaccines are protecting them against. For example, in the state of California during 2010, there were 9,120 cases of the whooping cough recorded. That year had the most recorded cases since 1940, when the vaccine against the whooping cough was introduced. In connection to this outbreak, ten infants, who were too young to be vaccinated against the whooping cough, died. It is disheartening to hear more and more of these types of stories when we already have a solution to the problem (“Vaccine Myths Debunked”, n.d.). We are likely to see more of these tragedies as the rates for vaccinations decrease. And we are likely to see many diseases that were once a rarity, make a comeback in our communities.

Vaccinations are considered to be the greatest health development of the 20th century. Because of advancements in medicine, vaccinations are becoming a widespread medium in the prevention of disease. They have provided the eradication and immunity to many deadly diseases such as smallpox, polio and rubella. Although there is no law that mandates the vaccination of children, they are necessary to prevent the infliction of disease and harm. By making the decision to vaccinate their children, a parent has the potential to save their lives.

When children who have been vaccinated do contract a disease, despite being vaccinated against it, they usually have milder symptoms with less serious complications than an un-vaccinated child that gets the same disease. It is true that some children who receive vaccinations may still become ill when exposed to other disease-ridden children. Research shows that 70-90% of the entire population must be vaccinated to attain “herd immunity”, “the resistance of a group to attack by a disease to which a large proportion of the members are immune.” (Farlex, 2012) When herd immunity is accomplished the spread of the disease can be averted throughout. If all parents were to take proper responsibilities and keep their children’s immunizations up-to-date, herd immunity would be achieved against all 16 of the major life threatening diseases.

Parents should be allowed to choose whether or not to immunize their children because of health concerns. Every vaccine has the potential to cause side effects such as, a low fever, irritation or swelling of the injection site, and headaches. These side effects are temporary and can usually last up to twenty-four hours, but sometime minor side effects are sometimes confused for the beginnings of severe adverse reactions. Adverse reactions occur because of genetics, environment, and acute sensitivity. When a person suffers from an adverse reaction they can temporary if treated properly and quickly, but tend to be permanent in most cases. Dr. Ran Paul believes that parents should have the right to choose because he has “heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines” (Con 1). He is not against vaccines, but believes that the parents have a right to be more involved. Vaccines can also cause a weakened immune system in children, which lowers their ability to