Essay On Child Vaccination

As science evolves and medicines become more advanced, the vision of diseases being eradicated from the world is slowly becoming a reality; however, with the decreasing level of child vaccinations in the United States the chance of fatal diseases resurfacing and infecting the public is increasing. Vaccinations or immunizations are injections or sprays that stimulate the immune system and allow for the body to create antibodies to disease causing antigens in the environment. By allowing a child to get vaccinated, the child would receive a healthier, less risky, lifetime protection against diseases. Without child vaccinations, children could become susceptible to deadly diseases like polio, hepatitis, or pertussis (whooping cough) and infect

When one does not get vaccinated it disrupts a function called herd immunity. Like a group of sheep using its numbers to protect themselves from predators, herd immunity allows for the public to stop and protect others from a disease. Herd immunity is when a whole community is protected from a disease because a critical mass of its population has been immunized. Due to that population’s large immunization rate, the community can “protect members of the community who cannot be vaccinated, preventing the chain of disease from reaching them and limiting potential outbreaks,” (What is Herd Immunity?). In 1995 when the chickenpox vaccine was administered in the United States, the death rates from the disease dropped as much as 97%. When a disease spreads, epidemiologist discover the basic reproduction number people in an unprotected environment. Preventable diseases like measles have a reproduction rate of 8-12 people and requires 83-94% of the community to be vaccinated for the disease not to end according epidemic studies done in 1993 . With human communities expanding past our own country, diseases can travel from around the globe and cause outbreaks. The only way to limit the effect of those outbreaks is through