Introduction
Vaccination is considered one of the most important measures taken to form the health of a child. Vaccination is the most effective and medically safe strategy for preventing infectious diseases and reducing disability and mortality from infectious pathology. It is possible to protect a child from controlled infections only through vaccinations. The purpose of vaccination is to develop such immunity in the child’s body so that when meeting with an infection, the child either does not get sick at all or suffers a disease in a latent or mild form.
Identifying the problem
The current problem with children’s vaccination is that not all parents are willing to vaccinate their children. Because many children are not vaccinated on time, they fall the risk of getting serious illnesses (Buffarini et al., 2020).
Meaning
Vaccination is the introduction of antigenic material to cause immunity to the disease, which will prevent infection or weaken its consequences. Antigenic material can be live but weakened strains of bacteria or viruses, killed (inactivated) microorganisms, or special substances isolated from pathogens. There are also synthetic vaccines. The purpose of vaccination is to develop such immunity in the child’s body so that when meeting with an infection, the child either does not get sick at all or suffers a disease in a latent or mild form.
Reasons why you should vaccinate children
More diseases than ever before can be prevented for your child thanks to advancements in medical research. Many diseases that previously sickened or killed thousands of children have been eradicated, and others are on the verge of extinction, thanks in large part to reliable immunizations. Thanks to immunization, polio has been eradicated in the United States, where it was once the most feared disease and the cause of death and paralysis. In contrast to the pain, discomfort, and trauma of the diseases these vaccines are intended to prevent, the discomfort associated with vaccinations—which may include pain, redness, or tenderness at the injection site—is minor.
In fact, over the past few years, measles and whooping cough (pertussis) have both made a comeback. While some infants are too young to receive immunizations to protect them, others may not be able to due to severe allergies, compromised immune systems from diseases like leukemia, or other factors. You and your children who can receive vaccinations must be properly immunized to help keep them safe. This not only safeguards your family but also aids in halting the spread of these illnesses to your close friends and relatives.
A child who has a condition that is preventable by vaccination may not be allowed to attend daycare or school. Some diseases that can be prevented by vaccination might cause long-term disabilities and cost a lot of money because of lost wages at work, hospital expenses, or long-term disability care. Contrarily, getting protected from these diseases by vaccination is a wise expenditure that is typically covered by insurance. Children from low-income households can receive immunizations for free through the federally funded Vaccines for Children program.
For instance, immunization against smallpox led to its global eradication. Because the disease has been eradicated, your children are no longer required to receive smallpox vaccinations. The likelihood that pregnant women would transmit the rubella virus to their fetus or newborn has been significantly reduced by immunizing children against this disease, and birth abnormalities linked to that virus are no longer prevalent in the United States. Parents in the future may be able to trust that some diseases of today won’t be around to afflict their children in the future if we continue immunizing now and completely.
The components of germs that trigger the immune system’s reaction help the body identify the disease and fight it off. Even if your child had many vaccinations in a single day, the quantity of antigens in vaccines only makes up a small portion of the germs your child would normally come into contact with on a regular day. Parents occasionally ponder why vaccinations cannot be spaced apart. Rubella, mumps, and measles vaccinations, for example, were created and tested to be administered together. We do not make sure how effective the vaccinations are when given separately; therefore, I advise sticking to the schedule.
Conclusion
Before being made available to the general public, new vaccinations undergo three steps of clinical studies to ensure their security and efficacy. Vaccines undergo extensive, ongoing monitoring after being regularly provided for any side effects, which are then reported by the medical community to the CDC and Food and Drug Administration. Additionally, we actively monitor for potential responses or side effects by reviewing and analyzing information taken from millions of people’s medical records. Additionally, parents can report any unexpected vaccine reaction their children may have.
For instance, there have been several recent measles outbreaks in the United States as a result of unintentional human transmission of the virus from regions where it is considerably more common. All diseases require enough people in a community to be immunized, or what we term “herd immunity,” to prevent their spread. Not all diseases require such a high vaccination rate to be successful.
References
Buffarini, R., Barros, F. C., & Silveira, M. F. (2020). Vaccine coverage within the first year of life and associated factors with incomplete immunization in a Brazilian birth cohort. Archives of Public Health, 78(1), 1-8.