Childhood immunization should be mandatory

Mospaniuk 2

Mospaniuk

Andrii Mospaniuk

Teacher: Amit Dahan

ILAC Pre-degree I

01.08.1013

Childhood immunization should be mandatory.

Immunization is a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against different diseases that can cause serious health problems and even death. Immunization helps us stay healthy. If some person hasn’t been immunized or has abandoned a vaccination, it’s easy to catch serious illness and cause yourself and others serious problems. In this context, the problem of childhood immunization becomes very important, because young organism are much more sensitive than adult’s one. Some people believe that childhood immunization should be mandatory, while others believe that it should be optional. Today it is proved that children's immunization is a vital event in the life of every person and society in general, so it must be obligatory, and there are at least three reasons to prove it.

Firstly, immunization is the best way to protect a child from many diseases and even death. There are a lot of bacteria and viruses that cause vaccine-preventable diseases which can be passed on to people who are not protected by vaccines. These include: Polio, Measles, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Diphtheria, Mumps, Influenza, Pneumococcal and other. These viruses passed very quickly in many ways (including through air, water, food) and they are difficult to recognize by symptoms. A very instructive example was recently told by Amy Pisani.¹  Antonio (her son) was 13 months old when he became very ill. But a new mother did not pay enough attention to this occasion, especially when the boy’s temperature was dropped a bit. However, it meant that blood pressure had plummeted and it was not enough oxygen in young organism. During three days in the hospital, in an oxygen tent, doctors did give to this patient nebulizer treatment every hour. Amy Pisani was very lucky getting her little son into the hospital soon enough because many other families had lost children during that influenza period. Clearly, it is very important to get the vaccine (in this example flu vaccine) for children who are high risky to get a hard illness.

Secondly, childhood immunization should be mandatory because an unvaccinated child is a potential threat to others, which may develop into a serious epidemic. Children who are not immunized can transmit vaccine-preventable diseases throughout the community. Especially talking about babies who are too young to be immunized or when talking about children and adults who can’t be immunized for different reasons. Mostly, epidemic problem relates with the countries where immunization is not widespread. For instance, in Ukraine there are lot epidemics during every winter period which cause quarantine in many kindergartens and schools. As a result, the health of many children is deteriorating and an educational process is disrupted strongly.

And finally, the third reason why childhood immunization should be mandatory is that different diseases become rare due to childhood immunization and it is not impossible to develop into a worse form freely. There are many historical facts which show brightly the positive influence of vaccination. For example take such disease as polio. Before vaccination polio was available. 13,000 to 20,000 cases were reported each year in the U.S. None were reported in 2000. Between 1958 – 1962, averages of 503282 measles cases were reported with 432 deaths. Measles is still one of the most infectious diseases in the world. If vaccinations were stopped, 2.7 million measles deaths could be expected worldwide.² Obviously, it is very dangerous to ignore children immunization and it is much better to feel secure while vaccination is working.

To sum up, it should be noted that child immunization necessary part of social life. Three reasons mentioned above illustrate that it is not should be lack attention, and it should take serious think about improving the quality and stability of child immunization.         

¹ Whole text is available here: http://www2.aap.org/immunization/multimedia/familystories_amy.html

² http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/faq/whyimmunize.pdf