Childhood Vaccinations - Essay Example

Introduction I have observed a long withstanding controversy on the mandatory childhood vaccinations and the optional vaccinations. Mandatory vaccinations are vaccinations that are given to the children involuntarily as a set rule and also regulation by the health sector. On the other hand the optional vaccinations are available for every child on based on the parent's preferences. The optional vaccinations are not made mandatory to every child but they concerned parties are further given the liberty to choose on what they like and prefer best. On my part I would support the mandatory vaccinations since in the past they have had positive effects on the health of the children and if the vaccinations would be made optional most of the parents would not see the need of having their children vaccinated and this will further increase the mortality rate of the children since they will be prone to many diseases. The vaccination process works by preparing the immune system to attack any infection, by way of building a pathogen memory that will allow the immune system to recognize a pathogen later on and then fend off the infection. (Salmon, Haber, Gangarosa Phillips, Smith and Chen 1999) My perspective and position on the topic The vaccine controversy between the mandatory and the optional vaccinations options has been in existence for quite a long period. There are however many benefits that come from making the vaccination of the children compulsory for all the people. Dawn (Richardson. 2001). The compulsory vaccination helps prevent suffering and also death of the children from any serious infectious diseases. Making the vaccinations compulsory greatly outweighs the risks of any rare and also adverse effects that follow the immunization processes. First and foremost I would like to clearly state that the vaccination in children helps in protecting them against any infectious diseases such as measles and the ultimate goal of the vaccinations in children is to further eradicate these diseases. According to my perspective I strongly support the mandatory vaccinations in the children. This is because the children who are immunized compulsorily are at a lower risk of catching any diseases or even infections because they already have "herd immunity" that helps reduce and eradicate any diseases. Thereby the protection of the children from various diseases and also infections is then conferred to the non-immunized children. On the other hand mandatory immunizations help in the maintenance of a controlled check in instances where there occurs an outbreak because it reduces the chances of the outbreak spreading to a larger population of the children. Secondly I support the mandatory vaccinations because they are mostly affordable and easily available to most members of the society and this is an advantage to those who cannot afford the expensive optional vaccinations. As the concerned sectors make vaccinations for the children affordable they on the other hand save a lot of their spending on the treatment of the children who are vaccinated. If vaccination would not be made compulsory for the children then the health sector would then spend a lot of money on treating the infected children. Thirdly the vaccines most often work faster than the antibiotics that always work very slowly in avoiding any damaging effects of the a diseases and on the other hand the infectious agents can further develop resistance to the treatment of antibiotics. In accordance to the world health organization in this century the resistance to antibiotics is a major crisis for the healthcare in general. (Fair, Murphy, Golaz, Wharton 2002) If immunizations have to be effective means of controlling the infectious diseases then the vaccinations should be made mandatory to the whole population especially on the newborns. If some of the children are not vaccinated compulsorily and all the other children have been vaccinated then the child who is vaccinated is very safe from contracting any disease and the unvaccinated children die needlessly incase of any epidemics. (Halverson2007) By making the vaccinations compulsory for all the children it will then solve the religious opposition to vaccination as a matter of the doctrine and also the political opposition to the mandatory vaccination based on the grounds of the individual liberty. On the other hand I strongly support the mandatory childhood vaccinations since they help cater for the parents who are either ignorant or irresponsible. The medics are the ones who know the importance of these vaccinations and thus if the parents are left to make their own choices then they might not make the wise choices. Some parents do not even have the knowledge on the vaccinations of their children and they should not be allowed to decide on this issue by themselves since the benefits of vaccinations outweigh the adverse effects of the same. (Demicheli, Jefferson, Rivetti, Price 2005) Similarly by making the vaccination mandatory it creates some form of uniformity in the health sector since every person would be entitled to having their children vaccinated. Acknowledgement and refutation of the opposing argument Despite my recommendation on the mandatory vaccination there exists an opposing argument that the vaccination should however not be made compulsory but they should be made optional. On this controversial issue the question of mandatory implementation is strongly refuted by some people. Firstly their argument is that there is evidence in the scientific literature that documents the failures of the vaccines. And the failures could be caused by the failure of the vaccines to develop immunity or even the loss of waning immunity and this further affects the efficacy of the vaccines. This is however not true since the vaccines have been made for the sole purpose of acting as a preventive measure rather than a curative measure. (Dawn Richardson. 2001) Secondly the opposing side argues that there are various adverse reactions that that are related to the mandatory vaccinations. They then claim that these vaccinations should be made optional so that the people have options to chooser what is best suitable for them. The adverse reactions from the mandatory vaccinations include fatigue, rash, seizures, meningitis, e.t.c. those opposing the argument find it even more alarming when there are findings in the recent past that show that On the other hand the opposing argument shows that there are some anti immune disorders that have been attributed to the mandatory vaccines and these has been documented in some scientific literature also. (Bonhoeffer and Heininger 2007) There are some arguments also against the reasoning of the mandatory vaccination for instance in the case of diseases that might be contracted through fecal or even direct contamination as well as the airborne infections. (Fenner, Henderson, Arita, Jeek, and Ladnyi 1988) In such instances the vaccinations do not help as much as they would. The compulsory vaccination according to the opposition deny people the freedom to choose the medications that they want even if the choices that they make would increases the risk of various diseases to others. Those opposing the mandatory vaccinations claim that the diseases had already began to disappear even before the introduction of the vaccines because of better sanitation and also hygiene. But on the other hand if we look at the actual diseases incidences in the recent past we can however leave very little doubt on the direct and significant role played by the vaccines. They also further claim that the majority of the children who get diseases have already been vaccinated. Conclusion In conclusion the mandatory vaccinations have been further provoked by the opposition at various times and by different sources including some governments. The opposition further claims that by the imposition of the mandatory vaccination there will be an infringement of individual freedom in choosing their own medications even though in some instances such choices could increase the risk of the diseases to the other people. The opposition however has no right to put their focus on primarily the rights that will determine what is to be done to a person's child. My support for the mandatory vaccinations shows that they are beneficial not only for the short term but in the long run and that is why am supportive of the mandatory vaccinations. Reference: Bonhoeffer, J and Heininger, U (2007): Adverse events following immunization: perception and evidence. A journal of the current opinion on infected diseases. Demicheli V, Jefferson T, Rivetti A, Price D (2005): Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children". Cochrane Database System Halverson, R. (2007): The Truth about Vaccines. Gibson Square. Fenner F, Henderson A, Arita I, Jeek Z, and Ladnyi, I (1988): Smallpox and its Eradication. Geneva: World Health Organization. Fair E, Murphy V, Golaz A, Wharton M (2002): Philosophic objection to vaccination as a risk for tetanus among children younger than 15 years. Pediatrics journal Salmon A, Haber M, Gangarosa J, Phillips L, Smith J, Chen T (1999): Health consequences of religious and philosophical exemptions from immunization laws, individual and societal risk of measles. Pediatric journal Dawn Richardson. (2001): immunization risks are too serious to be ignored. Retrieved from; http://www.vaccineinfo.net/immunization/immunization_risks_serious.shtml accessed on 5th November 2007 Public health, Seattle & king county. (2007): comparisons in the immunizations. Retrieved from; http://www.metrokc.gov/health/immunization/compare.htm accessed on 5th November 2007 Read More