The Vaccination: A Two-Edged Sword

Vaccinations have been repeatedly demonstrated to be one of the most effective interventions to prevent disease worldwide. It was voted by readers of the British Medical Journal in 2007 as one of the four most important developments in medicine of the past 150 years, alongside sanitation, antibiotics and anaesthesia. However, vaccination currently saves an estimated three million lives per year throughout the world and so topped the list in terms of lives saved, making it one of the most cost-effective health interventions available. Modern vaccines provide high levels of protection against an increasing number of diseases and the symptoms, disability and death that can occur from them.

Vaccines are one of most successful and cost effective public health preventive tool in current century for preventing communicable diseases. According to UK Health Protection Agency (HPA), vaccination is the second most effective public health intervention worldwide. Immunization protects the individual as well the community from serious diseases. Since the implementation of immunization there has been a 95% reduction in the cases 4. According to WHO immunization prevented 2million deaths worldwide.

Vaccines have the potential to eradicate diseases. Vaccines completely destroyed smallpox in the United States. The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1948. The author quotes the UNICEF who states, “There were 500 cases of polio in 2014 worldwide, down from 350,000

Illnesses and diseases continue to develop and spread constantly throughout the world. These harmful viruses have always had a huge impact on humanity. Viruses caused many deaths and outbreaks in the past and present because viruses can be passed on easily. Luckily today there is a way to prevent the spread of these viruses, which is vaccines. Vaccines are used to provide immunity against diseases. Once vaccines were introduced there were a lot of speculations and assumptions. There are many people who are for and against vaccines, but today there are many health professional, experts, doctors, and parents who believe that vaccination is a lifesaver. Vaccination is a controversial topic for many parents and guardians of children. Vaccines

The controversy over vaccination has two sides, the one side believes that vaccines are a crucial part in saving lives. The other side, believes that vaccination do more harm then good. This controversy over vaccination has been going on since the introduction of vaccine. Vaccines were introduced to the medical community in the 1800’s by a physician named Edward Jenner. The controversy really started with the Vaccination Act of 1840, which made vaccines free for the poor. In 1853 the Compulsory vaccination Act was passed, that made all infants under three months of life, and if not done you were to pay a fine. The anti-vaccination league challenged the law, because they felt that the compulsory vaccination act challenged there basic rights

Vaccinations are one of the most notable scientific break thoughts in primary health care history. It is one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of disease in the community. The safety and outcomes of the immunisation programs can be seen in the scientific research, health of the community and in society as a whole. Vaccination programs have been the cornerstone of preventative healthcare

Looking at this chart, the impact of vaccines in the Twentieth century have almost completely eradicated diseases like measles, diphtheria, and small pox. According to the CDC, vaccinations have prevented more than 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths among children born in the last 20 years. Vaccines have the ability to provide artificially acquired immunity and are easier plus a less risky way to become immune to disease rather than attempting to heal after

The most effective way to protect a person against many diseases, such as measles, pertussis, polio, and chickenpox, is to get vaccinated. Doctors and scientists all over the world highly recommend vaccines and, being that they have spent years studying health, their recommendations stand reliable. Omer Saad, a professor and researcher who has been involved in many projects on vaccinations in foreign countries, believes that “vaccines are among the most effective tools available for preventing infectious diseases” (1). The implementation of this technology has brought huge decreases in disease rates. Correspondingly, The University of Pittsburgh has conducted research on infectious disease statistics since 1888 and found that over 103 million cases of life threatening diseases have been prevented since 1924 (Welch 2). The Journal of the American Medical Association also found dramatic drops in infections and deaths associated with chickenpox, polio, and diphtheria and attributes these decreases to vaccine technology (Welch 2).

Franklin D. Roosevelt suffered from polio while he served as the President of the United States. Polio is a virus that causes paralysis, and can even lead to death. Before the polio vaccination was introduced in 1955, the virus had claimed thousands of victims over the years. (“Polio”). Today, vaccinations are available to the public in order to keep viruses like polio from causing an epidemic. A vaccination is the injection of a weakened disease or virus, in order for your body to build up immunity against a certain illness (Davidson). Vaccinations have become a controversial subject because of the side effects, the ingredients used and the idea of protecting the herd.

Many vaccines are “designed to protect infants and children early in life” (“What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?”, 2016, para. 9). This shows that scientists are working hard to protect children at a young age. When one vaccinates his or her child at a young age, it not only protects during childhood, but also adulthood. This keeps the child healthy all of his or her life. Not only do children need protection early in childhood, but also the right amounts of dosages. “Not receiving the full number of doses leaves a child vulnerable to catching serious diseases” (“What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?”, 2016, para. 10). This allows people to understand that children can still be prone to diseases if they do not have the recommended amount. For a child, it is needed to receive the full dosages to be fully protected. A recommended immunization schedule has been created for the public. This schedule proposes the design on how to protect children early on in their lives before “being exposed to the potentially life threatening diseases” (“What are the Reasons to Vaccinate My Baby?”, 2016, para. 10). Receiving immunizations at a certain age also helps the vaccine do its job in the best way. Due to children needing vaccinations early in life to keep them healthy, it creates another reason as to why people support

My beliefs regarding vaccinations is simple; they prevent diseases and save lives. With that said, the decision whether to vaccinate my child or not was easy to make. Many parents however struggle with this decision. I would like to understand why parents decide against vaccinations, knowing that their child could potentially be exposed to diseased countless times throughout their lives. I hope to gain a clear understanding regarding the risks and benefits associated with vaccinations during my research and learn how parents apply that information in their decision making process. This knowledge and understanding is extremely important to millions of individuals because as more and more children go unvaccinated, it can potentially cause outbreaks

As a result of vaccines certain diseases that once were fatal to many people in our country have either been reduced or eliminated. In 1980 smallpox was eradicated as a result of the World Health Organization campaign efforts for global vaccination (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/). Vaccinations are not only beneficial for the individual person but also because they provide protection for communities by creating herd immunity (https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/protection/). Herd immunity also prevents outbreaks such as measles.

Vaccines have been successfully utilized since the late 1700s, and they are now considered to be one of the biggest achievements of public health. An immune response is triggered when a vaccine is administered, causing the body to create a defense against an infecting organism. The wide use of vaccines has been helpful in protecting populations against dangerous diseases that would otherwise cause harm to an individual, even to the point of death, and even represent a significant cost to the public health system. The incidence of a significant number of infectious diseases has been greatly reduced since the introduction of vaccines, to the point where small pox has been eradicated, and several others have been largely eliminated and are on

The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination (“Vaccine ProCon”).

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.