All Children Should be Vaccinated
All Children Should be Vaccinated
Running Head: VACCINES 1
VACCINES 4
All Children Should be Vaccinated
Evelyn Martinez
Chamberlain College of Nursing
Advance English Composition
January 2020
All Children Should be Vaccinated
Data from the world health organization currently shows that immunization prevents the loss of lives of 2-3 million children annually (World health organization, 2019). This statistic shows that immunizing children is very important for the survival of children. All children should be vaccinated because vaccines save lives, prevent outbreak of preventable diseases, and helps families to save money.
Immunization helps to save the lives of millions of children across the world. Over 2 million lives are saved through immunizations every year. Immunizing children reduces the risk of them getting infected with deadly diseases such as mumps, measles, and polio (Begg, 2013). Receiving vaccines improves the immunity of children therefore reducing the chances of getting attacked by deadly diseases such as polio. Polio is a viral disease which is highly infectious and can cause irreversible paralysis if it is not prevented (Shahzad and Köhler, 2009). In 2018, 85% of infants around the world received the vaccine. Polio was once responsible for over 350,000 deaths annually but all that is history now thanks to vaccination efforts to eradicate the disease (World Health Organization, 2017). Currently, cases of people suffering from polio have reduced by 99%.
Some people might argue that vaccines put children’s lives at risk but that information is no accurate. The common argument is that some of the elements used in vaccines such as aluminum and mercury are harmful. However, this argument is not valid because there is existing scientific evidence to show that aluminum is harmless in small quantities. Antacids which are commonly used have about 1,000 as much aluminum as vaccines and there have not been any cases associated with harmful effects of aluminum in antacids.
Vaccines prevent outbreak of deadly preventable diseases. Most fatal diseases which used to claim a lot of lives in the past have been contained or eradicated. The rubella virus which was eradicated in the USA in 2004 used to be a fatal disease. During its last epidemic in the USA, about 12.5 million people were infected with rubella, while 11,000 pregnant ladies lost their babies, 2100 newly born infants lost their lives, while 20,000 were diagnosed with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) (Antipova, 2014). Today, very few report having the virus: less than ten cases of rubella virus are reported in the USA. Majority of people who report cases of rubella virus acquire it from foreign countries. The rubella virus is an example of how vaccines can prevent an outbreak of preventable diseases and save millions of lives.
Opponents of vaccination argue that too many vaccines given to children can overwhelm their immune system. There is no scientific evidence to back up the claims that too many vaccines overwhelm the immune system of children. Millions of vaccines are administered every year but very few cases of allergic reactions are reported. The number of harmful effects of vaccines is very rare even the CDC is unable to calculate the statistics.
Vaccines help families save money by avoiding spending money to treat diseases. Families who do not vaccine their children end up spending a lot of money treating their children. For example, children who get infected with polio suffer from irreversible paralysis which is costly over a long period of time. Other preventable diseases are also expensive to treat if they are not vaccinated early. If not vaccinated, these diseases can cause death which robs the family of their loved ones.
Opponents of vaccines say that vaccines are unnecessary expenses for diseases which have already been eradicated. This is not true because the diseases can emerge if a person from a foreign country has it. Diseases such as polio and rubella can still emerge and cause a lot of deaths. It is important to continue vaccinating against eradicated diseases to prevent them from emerging again.
In conclusion, vaccinating all children is important because there is scientific evidence to prove that vaccines are effective. Many lives are saved when children are vaccinated. About 3 million lives are saved every year through vaccinations. Vaccines have also helped in eradicating deadly diseases such as polio and preventing an outbreak. Money that could have been used to treat children who suffer from preventable diseases is saved when they get vaccinated. All children should be vaccinated because vaccines save lives, prevent the outbreak of preventable diseases, and help families to save lives.
References
World Health Organization. (2017). 10 facts on polio eradication. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/polio/en/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2020].
Who.int. (2019). Immunization coverage. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/immunization-coverage [Accessed 13 Jan. 2020].
Antipova, A. (2014). RUBELLA VIRUS AND ITS TERATOGENIC ACTION. PATHOGENESIS, CLINICAL COURSE, DIAGNOSTICS AND PREVENTION OF CONGENITAL RUBELLA SYNDROME. Part 2. Congenital rubella syndrome. Russian Journal of Infection and Immunity, 1(2), p.131.
Begg, N. (2013). Trust in Vaccines: Why It Takes More than Good Faith. Vaccines, 1(3), pp.343-347.
Shahzad, A. and Köhler, G. (2009). Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV): A strong candidate vaccine for achieving global polio eradication program. Vaccine, 27(39), pp.5293-5294.
