The Importance Of Immunization

Can you imagine life without vaccine? In the reading "Not Being Vaccinated is not Acceptable" by David Ropeik argues that we should all get vaccinated because it’s necessary. Vaccinations are designed to help us go through our daily everyday life. A vaccine is a modern type of medicine that has been added to the world early on in life to prevent us all from diseases. It is called a modern medicine because of how many lives it has saved throughout the world. The earliest documented examples of vaccination are in the 17th century from India and China, people infected with smallpox were used to protect against the diseases. Vaccine have become better, to where they are safer for the human body. Vaccinations protect you and everyone around you, saves public money, protects future generations and it’s reliable.

Despite significant progress in the fight against preventable disease, millions still die needlessly each year. According to UNICEF, originally known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, a vaccine preventable disease is responsible for 2 million fatal infections worldwide each year. About 75% of these deaths occur in children under five years of age. (N) In more vivid terms, UNICEF notes that vaccine-preventable diseases kill a child every 20 seconds. (D) Due to high rates of childhood vaccination, the United States has experienced a dramatic reduction in such deaths. A comparison of the years 1950 and 2010 clearly illustrates the benefits of vaccinations. During this 60-year period, deaths from diphtheria reduced from 410 to 0, tetanus from 336 to 3, pertussis from 1,118 to 26, and polio from 1,904 to 0. Measles deaths dropped from 468 in 1950 to 0 in 2008, the last year a United States death rate was recorded. It’s not surprising that vaccinations have been touted as one of the top ten health achievements of the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claim that immunizations are one of the most successful interventions in public health history (2015). The CDC is qualified to make this statement as research shows the vaccinations have eradicated smallpox and nearly eliminated the polio virus, in addition to diminishing the occurrences of preventable infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria and whooping cough (2015). However, despite the statistics and research, in 2015, only 71.6% of the children between 19 and 35 months received the combined 7 vaccine series (CDC, 2015). This decline in vaccination rate can have devastating effects not only on the individual child, but also on the community, as a whole. Consequently,

“In 2011 alone, 1.5 million children died [worldwide] from diseases preventable by currently recommended vaccines” (“Immunization” 2). The magnitude of this tragedy is in part caused by the fact that some of those children simply weren’t reached by organizations like UNICEF, which aim to vaccinate children (“Immunization” 2). However, there are other reasons for the recent deaths and epidemics—such as the whooping cough epidemic of 2012, with 48,000 cases nationally in the United States—involving vaccine preventable diseases (McClay 1).

Often debated, with strong convictions on each side, timely immunizations for children do more good then harm. Over the last few years, a phenomenon has come to our door steps. It used to be that all parents would immunize their children, without fail, because doctors told them to. In the past, the only non-immunized children were the children with health deficiencies. These children depended on the “herd” mentality. However, times are changing and parents are choosing to not immunize their children mainly based on these reasons: the possibility of them getting autism, parental lack of education about immunizations and lastly they believe that the illnesses that children are being immunized against are gone and immunizations are no longer needed.

Vaccines are one of the safest, convenient and most preventive care measures that is available. Getting vaccinated can mean the difference between life and death. Vaccine preventable diseases can be very dangerous. Every year, there is approximately 50,000 United States adults who die from vaccine preventable diseases (McLaughlin, p265). Vaccines will not give you the disease that it is designed to prevent. Some vaccines contain the killed virus, and it impossible to catch a disease from that. Other vaccines contain live, but weakened viruses that are designed to ensure that a person cannot catch the disease. There is very strong data from many different medical investigators that all point to the safety of the vaccines (Williams, p3176). There is proof that vaccines are among one of the safest products in all medicines used. When one person gets sick, children, grandchildren and parents are at a higher risk. A vaccine-preventable disease that could make a person sick for perhaps a week or two, but could prove to be deadly for a person’s children, grandchildren and parents if it is to spread to them. When a person gets vaccinated, they are not only protecting themselves, but also their children and community. An example is that adults are the most common source of whooping cough infection in infants, which can be extremely deadly to infants. In 2010, there was at least 25 cases in the United States of infants who

The advancements in immunization have led to positive social impacts and drastically improved public health. Research has shown that, “through the prevention of damage that can be caused by infectious diseases, they also appear to benefit in terms of cognitive development” (“Berkley”). Scientific evidence has shown that when kids become vaccinated, there is a positive social boost. If a child doesn’t get vaccinated and catches an illness, they aren’t able to go to school. Healthy children are able to get an education and become productive members of society. Statistics show that “more than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only two cases of diphtheria have been reported to the CDC between 2004 and 2014” (“What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations”). Thousands of people would die from illnesses before there was vaccines. When

Vaccinations are a luxury of which many members of the modern first world do not often recognize the significance of. It has been a few generations since society has seen the devastation that can come from severe communicable disease. Those that lived through the horror of epidemics like measles, smallpox, polio and more were either too young to have realized the true gravity of what was happening around them. Those who survived to die of natural causes and are no longer here to remind us of that time. This lack of remembrance, however, does not erase the past. Diseases such as these devastated countries all around the world; thousands of children were killed due to a complete lack of prevention or protection. Only when vaccinations came about for each of these maladies did society finally escape the awful times. Despite the impact that was clearly made by these preventative measures, parent’s of today’s generation refuse to vaccinate their children. In response to misguided celebrities voicing distrust in the benefits of vaccinations, false studies linking developmental disorders to shots, and more, the number of guardians wary of giving their kids these injections grows. While research disproving the validity of these reports and studies has been published several times over the years, the news seems to fall more and more on deaf ears. This results in an increased group of individuals who leave their children and the rest of the world vulnerable to a resurgence of the most

What is a vaccination? Why are they so important ? A vaccination is a live virus administered into the body to build immunity against deadly diseases. When a child is little and is exposed to a disease their bodies are not strong enough to fight it off and can make them very sick. Before vaccination came into play children would get diseases such as pertussis(whooping cough),polio,diphtheria, and tetanus, all of these being extremely deadly.Why would someone want to give a young child these deadly viruses? Studies have shown that no medicine is perfect but most childhood vaccines produce immunity about 90 - 100% of the time.(vaccines) Before vaccinations were invented people were only living 50-60 years, they now are living 20-25 years longer. How does this protect those who physically can not have vaccinations? Vaccinations protect those who can not be vaccinated, whether is be from a disease they are already fighting, chemo / radiation, and being allergic. All of those being reasons to hope others get their vaccinations. Vaccinations not only protect children from harmful diseases, but also those who can not be vaccinated.

Throughout history, it has been shown that vaccines make a significant impact on the health of our communities and “administration of these vaccines led to dramatic reduction in the number of cases of, as well as deaths from smallpox, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps and preventable diseases” (Jacobson, 2012, p.36). Generally, those involved in campaigns for and research in these preventable diseases attribute vaccines for children as the main contributing factor to the overall decline in diseases such as measles, mumps, smallpox and pertussis (Jacobson, 2012). In the public health setting, there are many issues that threaten the health and safety of the public, not just in the local community but the nation and world-wide. One such issue, surfacing in public health, is the issue of vaccinations; those who choose to vaccinate, those who choose not to vaccinate and those who do not

In contrast, a positive aspect of many people having vaccinations is herd immunity. Herd immunity is the occurrence where a large proportion of a specific population is vaccinated to provide them immunity, and as a result, it also gives some protection to the people of the population who have and yet developed immunity. This happens as the a large group of vaccinated individuals are protected from a virus and creates difficulty for the it to spread because there is only a small percentage of the population left that could be infected by the disease. It is a very crucial aspect of immunity for the community as the people who cannot receive vaccinations (i.e. people with weak immune systems, very young children and patients who are too ill)

The increase in life expectancy during the 20th century is largely due to improvements in child survival; this increase is associated with reductions in infectious disease mortality, largely to immunization. (Healthy People 2020). Nation’s attempt to control diseases, "Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective clinical preventive services and are a core component of any preventive services of infectious diseases"(Healthy People 2010)because diseases do not stop at geopolitical borders or exclusive only to third world countries. Immunizations saved 33,000 lives. prevents 14 million cases of disease,and it reduces direct healthcare costs by $9.9 billion. Communities who remain un-vaccinated and under vaccinated are at increased risk for outbreaks of preventable diseases. New strains of vaccine-preventable disease can result in significant increase of serious illnesses and death.

Immunizations are important because they protect our children’s lives against disease. According to the CDC, Center for Disease Control, some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children have been eliminated completely, and others are close to being gone, primarily due to safe and effective vaccines. For example, the one great impact vaccines have had is the eradication of polio in the United States (CDC). As stated, polio was once America’s most-feared disease, causing death and paralysis across the country, but today thanks to vaccination, there have not been any reports of polio

What is a vaccination? Why are they so important ? A vaccination is a live virus administered into the body to build immunity against deadly diseases. When a child is little and is exposed to a disease their bodies are not strong enough to fight it off and can make them very sick. Before vaccination came into play children would get diseases such as pertussis(whooping cough),polio,diphtheria, and tetanus, all of these being extremely deadly.Why would someone want to give a young child these deadly viruses? Studies have shown that no medicine is perfect but most childhood vaccines produce immunity about 90 - 100% of the time.(vaccines) Before vaccinations were invented people were only living 50-60 years, they now are living 20-25 years longer. How does this protect those who physically can not have vaccinations? Vaccinations protect those who can not be vaccinated, whether is be from a disease they are already fighting, chemo / radiation, and being allergic. All of those being reasons to hope others get their vaccinations. Vaccinations not only protect children from harmful diseases, but also those who can not be vaccinated.

Vaccines have been considered one of the greatest medical achievements, and are instrumental in health promotion. Vaccines play a major role in lowering the risk of exposure to diseases. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends 29 doses of 9 vaccines plus an annual flu vaccine for children ages 0 to six (CDC, 2017). There are twelve diseases that have been considered potentially dangerous that children are routinely vaccinated against. They include: Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Hepatitis A and B, Pneumococcal disease, Varicella (Chicken Pox), and Haemophilus Influenza Type B (HIB disease). There is much debate about the safety of vaccinations. Those who oppose vaccinations believe that a child can