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National
Immunization Awareness Month highlights the value of immunizations
to individuals and to their communities. Each year vaccines protect
millions of adults and children from diseases that often cause discomfort,
pain, and, depending on the disease, disability or death.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies vaccination as one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions. "Well over 2 million deaths are currently averted through immunization each year." (WHO)
More than 200 years ago Edward Jenner vaccinated
a young boy for small pox. Other
vaccines followed: rabies (1885), bubonic plague (1897), diphtheria (1923),
tetanus (1927), polio (1955 and 1962) and more. Current recommended
childhood
immunization schedules published by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention list more than a dozen diseases for which vaccination
is recommended.
This has not been a hasty process. To take smallpox as one historical example, smallpox vaccination became compulsory in the United Kingdom in 1853. More than 100 years later, in 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a worldwide
vaccination program. Twelve years later, in 1979, smallpox was eradicated.
"In spite of the well-documented benefits of vaccines, they tend
to be undervalued by the American public. The reality is that the vast
majority of our citizens have not directly experienced the diseases
that vaccines are designed to prevent." Dr. Mike Magee, Health
Politics
Before vaccines, parents in the United States could expect that every
year the following would happen:
- Polio would paralyze 10,000 children.
- Rubella (German measles) would cause birth defects and mental retardation in as many as 20,000 newborns.
- Measles would infect about 4,000,000 children, killing 3,000.
- Diphtheria would be one of the most common causes of death in school-aged children.
- A bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) would cause meningitis in 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage.
- Pertussis (whooping cough) would kill thousands of infants.
(Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)
Your
Child's Immunizations, in the parent section of the KidsHealth
website, provides more information including: a brief description of each disease, an immunization schedule, reasons to receive the vaccine, possible risks and reasons to delay the immunization, care of child after the vaccination, and when to call the doctor.
Immunization information for adults
is posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum has
these resources related to immunity and immunization:
Activities Exchange: Classic Collection -
Vaccines: How and Why
Activities Exchange: Classic Collection -
Development of Polio Vaccines
Activities Exchange: Fellows Collection -
Virus Unit
Activities Exchange: Mystery Spot -
Tell Me More About Smallpox
Health Headquarters: Question of the Week -
Vaccinations
Health Headquarters: Question of the Week -
Dieting and the Flu
Health Headquarters: Question of the Week -
Germs
Health Headquarters: Question of the Week -
Small Pox
Health Headquarters: Health Focus -
National Public Health Week
Resource Center: About Biotech -
Vaccinating Against Cancer
Resource Center: About Biotech -
Monoclonal Antibody Technology - The Basics
What's News: Science Updates: -
Flu Vax Goes to the Source
What's News: Science Updates: -
Ebola Vaccine Candidate
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