Summary: The Benefits Of Vaccinations

The Benefits of Vaccinations

Vaccinations an effective weapon against infectious diseases or a toxic potion of potentially lethal preservatives? You decide. While numerous vaccines are primarily envisioned to prevent disease they do not necessarily protect against infection, vaccinations has proved to be an efficient way of improving health, and it has saved millions of lives. In the United States of America, there has been a 99% decline in occurrence for the nine diseases for which vaccines have been suggested for decades. Vaccine safety has gotten more attention than vaccination effectiveness, today vaccines have been proven effective and greatest vaccine worries have been shown to be deceitful. Misleading information regarding vaccinations
and their concerns has caused a fall in vaccination coverage here in the United States and around the world, causing the resurfacing of pertussis (whooping cough) and measles both preventable diseases.
In recent studies there we believed to be a link between thimerosal and Autism. In July 1999, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted this statement on their website “the Public Health Service agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure”, (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP)). If you search the Internet for vaccinations you will find more information about the risks of vaccinations rather than the benefits. The antivaccine movement has posed a threat to the wellness of society not only in the United States but also globally. There is no doubt that vaccines are an effective tool for both individual health and public health, and
it should be advocated worldwide.
Vaccinations are beneficial to the economy as well. Poor health will cost the nation billions of dollars, while the cost of a vaccination is cost effective. Ill children will not perform well in school and parents will lose work to tend to their sick children all this will affect our economy. By simply vaccinating your children, you are protecting them from potentially harmful diseases, and that alone should be every parent’s motivation. Good health can encourage social development and financial growth. The burden of diseases for vaccine-preventable illnesses are a general disadvantage to society. The benefit of overall health can be horribly underestimated. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a Vaccine for Children Program (VFC) which is federally funded that provides vaccinations at no cost to children because the parents cannot afford them.
Vaccines are proven to be an effective and inexpensive tool against improving the health of people worldwide. Vaccinations are given to children in almost all countries and this has been the focus and goal of the Global Health Organization. However, vaccination coverage still remains a battle. There are countries still vulnerable to preventable illnesses. They lack the recourses and skilled personal to administer these vaccinations. In developing countries this has caused more than 30 million children to be unimmunized. These children will become seriously ill or die because they have not been immunized. In the developed world, vaccination efforts are still faced with many obstacles. The anti-vaccination movement gravely has increased the risk of disease for the entire population. Travel has also increased the risk of exposure to infectious diseases worldwide.
Today the vaccines given to children and adults are oral polio vaccine, tetanus toxoid, haemophilus influenzae, hepatitis b, and a combination of diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and many more.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends following their vaccination schedule. Once the vaccination is given, the body will then believe it is under a full-scale invasion by the disease, the body’s immune system will then produce antibodies against this intruder. The immune system will create a memory of this disease to recognize the invader. If the body became infected again with the disease the immune system will quickly recognize the intruder and neutralize it immediately. The vaccination is a harmless version of the germ. Diseases are preventable with this process and yet today we see a decline in children that are immunized. According the World Health Organization “in 2008 an estimated 1.5 million deaths among children under 5 years old were due to diseases that could have been prevented by routine vaccinations. This represents 17% of global total mortality in children under 5 years old”. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is the world’s largest purchaser of vaccines that provides immunizations for more than one third of the world’s children. According to UNICEF “this organization has helped cut measles deaths by 71% since 2000, they have eliminated polio in 122 countries since 1988 and has created a new vaccine against pneumonia the top killer of
children”.
The benefit of vaccinations goes beyond the prevention of certain diseases and illnesses. Vaccinations are beneficial for all members of society including the weakest. The very ill are too weak to get vaccinated, and depend on everyone around them to be vaccinated in order to reduce their risk of these potentially fatal diseases. Babies too young to get vaccinated also depend on society to protect them by getting vaccinated and lowering their risk of becoming ill. Reducing the risk of preventable diseases enriches the lives of all worldwide. Decreasing global child death by worldwide access to safe and effective vaccines should be the main goal of all people. Making this a priority is morally correct, there are children dying unnecessarily. The continued use of vaccinations could eradicate a numerous amount of these current diseases as it has done with the smallpox disease. This vaccination is no longer needed. Choosing not to vaccinate your children harms the child and society as well. With a series of safe vaccinations we are able to help provide our children with a healthy beginning. However, some choose to not accept this because of risks that have been discredited. The decision to vaccinate your child goes far beyond just your family, when you vaccinate your child you are strengthening our nation, our economy, our future and our world against these potentially fatal diseases.

References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention Thimerosal retrieved November 14, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Thimerosal/Index.html

World Health organization Vaccine-preventable diseases retrieved November 7, 2013, from http://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/diseases/en/

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Immunization for All Children: Think BIG retrieved November 17, 2013, from http://www.unicefusa.org/work/immunization/