Importance of Kids Vaccination

Dr.Sameer Punia, 3 mins read

Like the saying “prevention is better than cure”, vaccination is better for sure. Once upon a time not long ago, diseases like polio, measles, diphtheria, German measles or rubella, whooping cough or pertussis, tetanus, mumps, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and rotavirus used to be common and claimed millions and millions of lives as there was no cure. Another disease named smallpox claimed over three hundred million lives alone, in only the twentieth century: today thanks to vaccines, it exists solely in laboratories. The first vaccine was developed due for smallpox. 

Vaccination protects us from diseases using our own bodies as security agents. A vaccine works by introducing a weaker form of disease into the body, a form the body can fight by itself by producing antibodies and in case a full fledged version of the disease tries to invade the body later on: the same antibodies will attack and eliminate it naturally without the need for any medication.

Process - a weaker form of disease is injected into a child. The body detects the invading germs called antigens and produces its own antibodies to fight against the infection. These antibodies remain in the child’s body for the rest of its life in most cases. Some diseases like a mild cold or flu are fairly safe and their symptoms are treatable whereas diseases like smallpox or polio can cause irreversible damage to life. 

Children are born with a certain level of immunity passed down from their mothers but these are not enough after a certain time. That is why children are not administered vaccines before the age of two months. The immune system of a child needs to be strained and trained if it is to develop. This is done via vaccination by introducing the body to different germs that infect the body. When the body is exposed to such germinal invasion, it first gets infected and the child experiences some symptoms before the body builds up resistance. 

Every single person requires vaccination, period! Be it infants, teenagers, children or adults. There are vaccine schedules you can look up online or consult your doctor but most vaccines are administered before the age of six. There are shots (like polio or tetanus shots) that come individually or at time together. The immunisation of people will avoid great loss of life due to disease in the future. 

Children are the most crucial resource for us and need to be healthy and free of disease if life is to be sustained. 

Some people who get vaccinated but do not respond to the vaccines and these people are at great risk of contracting diseases and spreading them, without vaccines for children; disease outbreaks would occur often and the entire world population would be susceptible. 

If we stopped vaccinating kids, all the terrible diseases of the past like smallpox would return and epidemics would turn into pandemics in a blink of an eye.

Do get your kids vaccinated. tensive Care Services