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The Importance of
Childhood Immunizations
Disease prevention is the key to public health. It is always better to
prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccines prevent disease in the people
who receive them and protect those who come into contact with unvaccinated
individuals. Vaccines help prevent infectious diseases and save lives.
Vaccines are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that
were once common in this country, including polio, measles, diphtheria,
pertussis (whooping cough), rubella (German measles), mumps, tetanus, and Haemophilus
influenzae type b (Hib).
Parents are constantly concerned about the health and safety of their
children and take many steps to protect them. These steps range from
child-proof door latches to child safety seats. In the same way, vaccines
work to protect infants, children, and adults from illnesses and death
caused by infectious diseases. While the US currently has record, or near
record, low cases of vaccine-preventable diseases, the viruses and bacteria
that cause them still exist. Even diseases that have been eliminated in this
country, such as polio, are only a plane ride away. Polio, and other
infectious diseases, can be passed on to people who are not protected by
vaccines.
Vaccine-preventable diseases have a costly impact, resulting in doctor's
visits, hospitalizations, and premature deaths. Sick children can also cause
parents to lose time from work.
Why Are Childhood Vaccines So Important?
- It’s true that newborn babies are immune to many diseases because
they have antibodies they got from their mothers. However, the duration
of this immunity may last only a month to about a year. Further, young
children do not have maternal immunity against some vaccine-preventable
diseases, such as whooping cough.
- If a child is not vaccinated and is exposed to a disease germ, the
child’s body may not be strong enough to fight the disease. Before
vaccines, many children died from diseases that vaccines now prevent, such as
whooping cough, measles, and polio. Those same germs exist today, but
babies are now protected by vaccines, so we do not see these diseases as
often.
- Immunizing individual children also helps to protect the health of our
community, especially those people who are not immunized. People who are not
immunized include those who are too young to be vaccinated (e.g., children
less than a year old cannot receive the measles vaccine but can be infected
by the measles virus), those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons
(e.g., children with leukemia), and those who cannot make an adequate
response to vaccination. Also protected, therefore, are people who received
a vaccine, but who have not developed immunity. In addition, people who are
sick will be less likely to be exposed to disease germs that can be passed
around by unvaccinated children. Immunization also slows down or stops
disease outbreaks.
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