Vaccinations have been used since 1796, when Edward Jenner created the first vaccine for smallpox (Alexandra). Since then, vaccines have destroyed several viruses such as smallpox and polio. Vaccines were not required of students attending schools until 1855, when Massachusetts enforced a vaccination law for smallpox. By 1920, over half of the United States passed vaccination laws requiring school children to receive a smallpox vaccination. Smallpox would later be eliminated in 1980. After the elimination of smallpox, many other life-threatening diseases would be discovered.
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
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Hepatitis B is a bacterial infection that displays symptoms like a visible rash on the surface of the skin, headache, abdominal pain, fatigue, anorexia, chills, severe liver damage, and can even lead to death. It can be contracted through close contact, especially sexual contact, through lesions on the skin from an infected person (Leu). Another required vaccination is Tdap. “It usually enters the body through the mouth and begins its replication in the throat and gastrointestinal tract. It moves to the bloodstream and continues to replicate and destroy motor neurons in the central nervous system. These are the motor neurons responsible for control of the muscles for swallowing, circulation, respiration and movement of the trunk, arms and legs” (Furnari). The last required vaccination is Hib. Symptoms for Hib include asthma, upper respiratory tract infections, lung disease, recurrent bronchitis, and death. Each of these vaccinations are required by schools to ensure the health of their
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 develops their own individualized guidelines through interactions with federal and state government agencies. 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.
Vaccines are becoming increasingly hazardous for many children and parents are not being informed about the safety of their children. Current reports are linking vaccines to serious life-threatening disorders such as asthma, autism, immune system dysfunction, and mental retardation (Williams). These recent revelations are causing an increasing amount of people to claim religious and medical exemptions from vaccines. From 1999 to 2006, exemptions have more than doubled from 9,722 to 24,919 (Cronin). It is very clear that vaccinations are posing many problems for parents everywhere. 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.
Vaccines have been used to prevent diseases for centuries, and have saved countless lives of children and adults. The smallpox vaccine was invented as early as 1796, and since then the use of vaccines has continued to protect us from countless life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and pertussis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) assures that vaccines are extensively tested by scientist to make sure they are effective and safe, and must receive the approval of the Food and Drug Administration before being used. “Perhaps the greatest success story in public health is the reduction of infectious diseases due to the use of vaccines” (CDC, 2010). Routine immunization has eliminated smallpox from the globe and led to the near removal of wild polio virus. Vaccines have reduced some preventable infectious diseases to an all-time low, and now few people experience the devastating effects of measles, pertussis, and other illnesses.
A time where vaccines were beneficial was when small poxs found its way around the human population. It was only till the end of the 18th century where an effective vaccination created by Edward Jenner was made for
Hepatitis B is a DNA viral infection that causes damage and inflammation to the liver. It was first discovered in 1965 by Dr. Baruch Blumberg. The HBV virus is very contagious and is even thought to be the most serious form of viral hepatitis and the most common viral infection on Earth. “HBV is 100 times more infectious than HIV.” (Green, 2002, pg. 7) The virus can survive for about one week outside the body on a dry surface. According to Green (2002, pg. 7), “One in twenty Americans has been infected with the virus at some point in their lives.” Between the ages of 15-39 is when 75% of new HBV infections occur, according to Green (2002, pg.8).
Some of the most fatal and dangerous diseases known to the human race are measles, polio, and diphtheria. Before the 1900s, these diseases caused communities to live in fear as they went about their daily activities. Since then, vaccines have been a solution created to prevent people from acquitting these horrendous sicknesses. “In the 20th and 21st centuries, many people in the United States have not personally encountered some of the diseases that are now vaccine-preventable” (p. 132). However, even with a major advancement in medicine, there are still children all across the United States that are being deprived of life saving vaccinations. The universal vaccination dilemma causes moral principles such as beneficence and justice to be debated continuously in regards to how nurses provide care to patients.
Vaccinations are designed to help people go through their everyday lives. A country doctor, Edward Jenner, who lived in Berkeley, England, first administered vaccines in 1796 (Health Affairs). Throughout history, vaccinations have become better where they are safer for the human body. Everyone should get vaccinated against certain diseases to stay healthy. Vaccines have been proven to make people immune to serious diseases (Childhood Immunization).
The potential benefits of vaccines and process of immunity in our society not only prevent the spread of the targeted disease. Vaccinations for Chronic Hepatitis B, an infection that leads to liver cancer, can prevent the cancer from accumulating in the body when the pathogens...
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).
Merck & Co. sold the first commercially used smallpox vaccine in the United States in 1898. The next year, it published a guide for physicians and pharmacists known as The Merck Manual. The manual is translated in 17 languages today and is considered one of the most widely used
Oftentimes, parents feel hesitant when considering getting their child vaccinated. They question if it is actually safe and if the vaccine will even be as effective as doctors claim them to be. An article written for Vaccines: Your Best Shot at Good Health, states that “Vaccines work really well … most childhood vaccines produce immunity about 90 - 100% of the time,” (“Vaccines are Effective”). Using this evidence it can be said that there is a much greater chance of a vaccine being successful than it not being successful. Vaccines should be more specifically mandated in the United States for the safety of the nation.
Vaccines came into prominence in the mid-20th century as a way to combat common diseases. Children were vaccinated with only a few vaccines at the time: in 1970, only 3 vaccines were required. A common vaccine was MMR, to protect against measles, mumps, and rubella. These vaccines were widely accepted by parents until
How would you feel if the right to choose to vaccinate your child was taken away? What if after the child received their vaccinations they contracted a serious illness or even died from the vaccinations? There are many cases that have shown adverse reactions in children who have had regular or mandatory vaccination series throughout their lives. Throughout our lives, we are introducing foreign particles and chemicals into our body by receiving the vaccinations that are mandated by our jobs or school. These vaccinations start from the time we are born and continue until the day that we die. Not only are we not allowing our body to build an immunity on it’s on, 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.
For innumerable centuries, unrelenting strains of disease have ravaged society. From the polio epidemic in the twentieth century to the measles cases in the latter half of the century, such an adverse component of nature has taken the lives of many. In 1796, Edward Jenner discovered that exposure to cowpox could foster immunity against smallpox; through injecting the cowpox into another person’s arm, he founded the revolutionary concept known as a vaccination. While many attribute the eradication of various diseases to vaccines, many United States citizens are progressively beginning to oppose them. Many deludedly thought that Measles had been completely terminated throughout the United States; however, many children have been patronized by