Vaccinations are the safest way to be healthy. Health authorities have made several vaccines against preventable diseases mandatory. Vaccines strengthen the immune system by stimulating the production of anti bodies. A child is born with an inherent immune system which is generally effective from 1 to 12 months, but is not able to protect against sicknesses such as polio, whooping cough, measles and hepatitis. Vaccines are administered from birth. It is usually in the form of inoculation but in some cases it could be given by mouth or nasal spray. If a child or adult has missed any of the doses of vaccines, the child’s pediatrician should be consulted to find out how you can be back on track.
Even as late as 1989 to 1991, Measles was a epidemic in USA, with 120 deaths and more than 55,000 cases reported. Measles is now rare and in some countries not even in existence due to the measles vaccines. Hib disease was also highly reported about two decades ago but today once again thanks to the vaccine Hib meningitis is no longer a disease to worry about. In the 1960s many were victims of Rubella which had infected pregnant mothers, with a high rate of infants being born with deafness, blindness, heart disease, mental retardation, or other birth defects. Rubella is no longer endemic in the USA.
Victims of vaccine preventable diseases are very low and in some countries like USA, some of the diseases are completely eradicated. By 2 years children have already received most of the mandatory vaccines but there are still under-immunized children, which may result in out breaks of diseases. The vaccine-preventable diseases are:
Anthrax
Cervical Cancer
Diphtheria
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Haemophilus Influenza type B (Hib)
Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
Influenza (Flu)
Japanese Encephalitis (JE)
Lyme Disease
Measles
Menningcoccal
Poliomyelitis (Polio)
Rabies
Rotavirus
Rubella (German Measles)
Shingles (Herpes Zoster)
Smallpox
Tetanus (Lockjaw)
Tuberculosis
Typhoid Fever
Varicella (Chicken Pox)
Yellow Fever
Vaccines are introduced to the market after much research to ensure safety of the public. It is likely to take as much as 10 years for a vaccine to be approved for license. Even after the vaccines are licensed, continuous research is carried out to make it a better product.
Vaccinations are administered not only to infants and children but even to adults, as some adults may be unaware whether they have been vaccinated as infants or children. At times even after receiving the vaccines over a period of time some of the vaccines may no longer be effective or due to normal deterioration of the immune system of an adult it might become necessary for adults to be vaccinated against preventive diseases. However, the doctor concerned must be aware of the medical history of the adult as some of the vaccines may react adversely to some medication.
Therefore vaccinations should be administered against preventable diseases to everyone with the long term objective of building a healthy society and eradicating all the preventive diseases.
