The Importance of Childhood Immunization - Research Paper Example

? Number] Childhood Immunization A baby is born with certain level of protection against the diseasesbecause the antibiotics from the mother’s body are transferred to him through placenta (Hviid and Melbye, p1277). After the birth breastfeeding allows the babies to continue receiving the antibodies through the breast milk but this protection is temporary and a baby requires higher level of immunisation to remain protected from different diseases. The childhood immunisation is the essential process that provides required protection to the babies against the diseases and creates resistance in their bodies to fight with the viruses of different diseases. The childhood immunisation is a shield that protect the babies from diseases and also minimise the complexities when a baby suffers from any diseases (Finlay and McFadden, p767). Childhood immunization is an important and essential way to keep the babies protected from wide range of diseases and health problems. Immunization starts at childhood because it makes children protected against certain viruses before they enter their school life and interact with different people and circumstances. Moreover, proper immunisation for certain diseases at particular time assures that the child world become able to fight against the diseases if he will came across the virus at any place (Hviid and Melbye, p1277). Childhood immunizations had allowed to overcome several diseases that decayed the generations of people in past. With the advent of advanced and effective childhood immunisation the mankind has become able to overcome several diseases like polio, tetanus and measles and now these diseases have now become just part of the history for people or the prevalence among the people has become very low due to proper immunisation (Pancer and Cooper, p518). The childhood immunization is very essential for the babies because the natural protection they receive from the mother last just for few months of their life and then they become vulnerable to number of diseases, among them many have proved to be very serious and harmful for the human life. Childhood immunisation works to help the immune system of the body in building the resistance against the diseases. The vaccinations given to the children contain some little amount of virus or bacteria in dead, weakened or purified form. When they are injected to the body of the children the immune systems of the bodies produce antibodies to attack the viruses and bacteria (Flower and Doytchinova, p167). Sometimes the parents avoid vaccinations for their children because they thought that their child will have some types of allergies or reactions from the vaccine. However, it is important to understand that serious reactions of the vaccinations are rare and the children usually get fever or soreness after the vaccination that could be treated easily (Masri, p1073). Some children experience swelling or tenderness at the sport of vaccine injection but it is also temporary sign that disappears after few days. Childhood immunisation has been proved as very safe and most effective way that provides immunity to the children. It is the safest tool of health protection offered by the modern medicine. The risks associated with the childhood immunisation are very little as compared to the benefits of vaccines and the health risks related with the disease that the vaccine intends to prevent. Hence, it is imperative that the parents must follow the complete schedule of vaccination to assure that their children are protected against the diseases (Flower and Doytchinova, p167). The children are given the vaccinations for different diseases according to their ages. However, the schedule and dose of the vaccinations might differ from country to country. In different countries of the world, there is different schedule followed for children immunisation. Some vaccines are given to the children necessarily like polio, whooping cough, measles and hepatitis are given whereas many others vaccinations like chicken pox and influenza are optional and given after the recommendations of the physician (Finlay and McFadden, p767). There are some controversies also associated with childhood immunisation. Apart from their side effects and reactions there is also a though that the childhood vaccinations could also cause autism however, it has been proved that childhood immunisation is not cause of autism among the children and there is no link proved between these two. It is just due to the fact that the signs of autism appear in the same age when usually the children get the vaccinations for some diseases die to which the misconception was generated that the autism is caused by the childhood immunisation (Pancer and Cooper, p518). There are some people who still believe that the natural immunity is better for the children and rather providing vaccinations the children should be prevented through the natural immunity that they get from the breast milk. They have to understand that the natural immunity does not last for long and only the vaccinations could prevent the complexities of certain diseases. Many diseases could cause serious harm and damages to the human health if the proper vaccinations are not taken during the childhood (Masri, p1073). Childhood immunisation is a public issue because the trend of society of provide proper immunization to the children assures the safety of the health of entire society and upcoming generations. If the rate of childhood immunisation declines in any country then there is great risk that some diseases would come back and people of the country will start suffering from the diseases which had been overcome earlier (Pancer and Cooper, p518). Moreover, there are some diseases diminished from one country but present in other countries and people travelling from one country to another have the tendency to carry the viruses of the diseases with them and from this perspective also it is very important to get complete childhood immunisation according to the schedule suggested by the doctor (Hviid and Melbye, p1277). The governments of the countries have very important role to play in the entire scenario. The government has to responsibility to create awareness among the masses regarding the schedules childhood immunisation so that they country could successfully combat the challenges posed by certain diseases. Furthermore, an important responsibility of the government is to give people easy access to the healthcare facilities so that they can easily manage the immunisation for their children. The quality of healthcare services, vaccinations and provision of adequate information to the people also assures that people will understand the importance of childhood immunisation and eventually the country would be prevented from certain diseases (Finlay and McFadden, p767). The safety of vaccinations and quality of associated healthcare services is usually regulated by the government authorities like public health agencies and healthcare offices. Such agencies and offices have the responsibility to regulate the vaccines through the licencing process. They are required to have pre market review of the vaccine to assure its safety and effectiveness for the prevention of the disease. The post market assessment of the vaccines is also very important because it tells about the potential adverse effects of the vaccines (Masri, p1073). Hence, it is unveiled that childhood immunisation is critically important for the health of the children as well as for maintaining overall health condition of the countries and society. Nobody wants to see the children getting sick and struggling with different types of diseases and the adequate and effective way to avoid such situation is childhood immunization that assures the prevention of diseases and protects the health of the children. The government, healthcare professionals and the people have the duty to create awareness in the society so that the diseases could be prevented through proper childhood immunisation. Work Cited Pancer Z, Cooper M. "The evolution of adaptive immunity". Annual Review of Immunology, 24 (1), 2006, pp497–518 Masri M. "The mosaic of immunosuppressive drugs". Molecular Immunology 39 (17-18), July 2003, pp1073–7 Flower DR, Doytchinova I. "Immunoinformatics and the prediction of immunogenicity". Applied Bioinformatics 1 (4), 2002, pp 167–76 Finlay B., McFadden G. "Anti-immunology: evasion of the host immune system by bacterial and viral pathogens". Cell 124 (4), 2006, pp767–82 Hviid A. and Melbye M. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination and asthma-like disease in early childhood. American Journal of Epidemiology 168 (11), 2008, pp1277-83 Read More