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Health care social issues
Mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren
Mandatory vaccinations for schoolchildren
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Health care is a major global issue that affects millions of people every day. In this paper I am going to review an important health care topic that includes childhood immunizations and religious exemption policies. Immunizations are one of the most cost-effective public health achievements that protect both individuals and the community as a whole. Vaccinated individuals help the community by creating what is called herd immunity for those who cannot be vaccinated due to age or current health conditions get some protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained. High vaccination rates and low incidences of diseases indicators of successful immunization programs.
Health care policies are put into place regarding childhood immunization requirements for schools along with information on obtaining religious exemptions. Each state and/or country
State vaccine mandates for children entering schools and daycare facilities to be up to date or they are not allowed to attend for the safety of other children (billington). Since 2008, global immunization levels for essential childhood vaccines have remained constant around the 80% mark. Over 1.5 million children die annually from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines. One in five babies around the world are missing out on basic vaccines and may die from weak health systems and insufficient funding. UNICEF and its partners are working to change these numbers and ensure that all children are successfully protected with vaccines.
World Immunization Week is celebrated at the end of April each year by UNICEF, immunization partners, government agencies around the world. The goal of World Immunization Week is to educate the public on the importance of vaccinations, the diseases they prevent, and the risk factors involved with not vaccinating children.
Social
"A Shot in the Arm for Childhood Immunization Programs." Trust for America's Health (2004): 3-18. Print. August 2004. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
Each day researchers are finding out about vaccines and are realizing that there are a lot more risks than benefits. Dr Phillip F. Incao explains: “Today, far more children suffer from allergies and other chronic immune system disorders than from life-threatening infectious disease. It is neither reasonable nor prudent to persist in presuming that the benefits of any vaccination outweigh its risk” (qtd in Spaker). While infectious diseases are becoming uncommon there is no need for any person to get vaccinated. There have been many issues surrounding vaccinations all around the world.
Parents must be forced to vaccinate their children. The detrimental effects of failing to vaccinate a child can be spine chilling for not only your child but you and your loved ones around. Despite our best efforts to keep our children safe, their lives are unhygienic, a proverbial germ fest some might argue. Children must be vaccinated as they are unaware of their surroundings and a vaccination will save their life; only the child’s but also the people around them.
By 2006, vaccines for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR), Hepatitis A and B, Chickenpox, and Hib were created and licensed. Vaccinations for these diseases, as they were created, would be required of students enrolled in school (“Government”). Today, the most common vaccines required by
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Public confidence in immunization is critical to sustaining and increasing vaccination coverage rates and preventing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs)” (para. 1). In recent history, there has been a significant decline in public confidence because of a variety of factors, such as vaccination does not always mean immunization, vaccines expose children to toxins, and children can build immunity naturally. The number of parents who are choosing not to vaccinate their children is growing yearly because there are certain exemptions that parents can claim, even if the vaccine is mandatory in their state.
In 1997, the American Nurses Association made a position statement supporting the intentional outreach to children and communities receiving vaccinations that still remains today. It states, “The fulfillment of the immunization goal is a major undertaking that cannot be realized...
For parents, the responsibility of taking care of a child is their number one priority. They tend to build up a list of what their child needs to stay safe and healthy. Even the smallest way of a taking care of a child is important like putting them in a car seat is one of the ways to keep children protected. There is another important way that parents should not forget to do – vaccinating their children. Parents should not miss all of their children’s vaccinations. Children can be protected against severe diseases, such as polio, which was “America’s most-feared disease, causing death and paralysis across the country” (“Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child”). Today, there hasn’t been any news about Polio for the longest time because of vaccinations. However, there are people who don’t have an option to not get vaccinated because they aren’t allowed due to their protection such as pregnant women and newborns. In order to avoid contagious diseases, people who are allowed to do so should get themselves vaccinated for the benefit of those who can’t get vaccinated and have a higher risk of getting severe diseases. For example, “Newborns who are too young to get vaccinated for whooping cough are also most at risk of severe illness from the disease” (“10 Reasons To Get Vaccinated”). Newborn infants have a high risk of getting serious diseases, which should encourage more people to get
Medicaid and Childhood Immunizations: A National Study by Joseph Tiang-Yau Liu and Sara Rosenbaum 1992 retrieved July 18. 2011 from ERIC
Each year, about 2.1 million people die from vaccine-preventable diseases. Many children may not receive their necessary first year vaccinations because of lack of availability, religious beliefs, and safety concerns (Healy, Rench, and Baker 540). The dictionary definition of a vaccine is a biological preparation that improves the immunity to a certain disease (Healy, Rench, and Baker 540). Although all 50 States in the United States require children to be vaccinated to certain diseases before entering school, the states also have exemptions for these vaccinations (Lu 870). Parents often choose not to get their children immunized, and it has proven harmful to the health of the global population. It is important for parents to have their children vaccinated against diseases such as measles, mumps, and polio because it is important to promote the welfare of the human race (Parkins 439).
Imagine living in a world where a common cold can kill. Thanks to the invention of the vaccine, humans can fight back against simple diseases and viruses such as a cold. Vaccinations have made many diseases that were once fatal, curable. Since vaccinations and inoculations were created, people have been living healthier lives and enjoying a better quality life. The World Health Organization defines a vaccine as "a biological preparation that improves immunity to a singular disease.
The absence of it and the price people have to pay creates healthcare poverty. In developing countries our healthcare is the worse. Nearly 2 million children a year die because they do not have the ability to treat preventable diseases like diarrhea or pneumonia (). In 2013, studies show that 21.8 million children under the age of one died from not receiving three recommended shots; diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis(). Parents and families around the world simply did not have enough money to take care of their health.
Not only are we not allowing our body to build an immunity on it’s own, but we are also traumatizing our children by making them receive shots on a routine basis. There are many reasons that vaccinations should not be mandatory, but the most important are the number of vaccinations, ineffectiveness, and side effects. The number of vaccinations a child receives, in the first six years of his/her life, has increased dramatically. According to “Vaccine Controversies” by Kathy Koch, “Today, an American child receives up to 39 doses of 12 different vaccines, most given during the first two years of life. And, unlike in previous decades, today’s youngsters are given multiple inoculations on the same day” (643).
“Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents whose children are vaccinated no longer have to worry about their child's death or disability from whooping cough, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, or a host of other infections.” (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 1). Vaccines helped humanity for many years in eliminating illnesses that disfigured, disabled and a lot of times took lives away. Children who do not get vaccinated not only risk themselves by being an easy target for diseases they also, harm everyone around them. In the end, today's children are the fuel of the future. Every parent should think carefully before taking any chance that may harm the coming generation.
According to World Book Advanced Encyclopedia, immunization is defined as the process of protecting the body against disease by means of vaccines or serums (Hinman). While medical science backs up the efficiency and necessity of vaccines, within the past decade, a rise in parents disbelieving the medical community and neglecting to immunize their children has occurred. This “fear of vaccines” is nothing new, but with the ever-increasing safety of vaccines, the benefits of inoculation far outweigh the risks. Parents who refuse to vaccinate, or anti-vaxxers, put more than their children’s lives on the line, but also risk the safety of the whole community. Because vaccines are essential to protecting individuals and communities
The people who require the most medical attention are in remote and distant areas, so once they are sick or infected, it is hard for them to receive treatment. Vaccine programs set up medical clinics in remote communities so people who require medical attention can receive needed treatment. (AIHW, 2014) It has been recorded that there are still 400 million people worldwide that don’t have access to basic and necessary health services. (WHO, 2015)