Immunization

 

Immunizations are meaningful to me because without them I think that life as I know it would be extinct. Because of immunizations my parents, me, and my children can fight off diseases that were fatal in the earlier years. Giving my children their vaccinations is a priceless gift. It is one that I was happy to afford them. There are children in the facility where I work that have not had any vaccinations. Some are based on religion and others are because the parents don’t want them to have any. Their thinking is that they have not been sick without the shots, so why should I put them through that unnecessary pain. I am so fearful for those children. The funny thing is that the grandparents of these children gave their children (the parents) their immunizations when they were children. I can’t understand why parents would want to take a chance with their child’s health and life. It is like playing a game of roulette. We can only pray that these children won’t get sick and if they do that it want end badly. 

Over 10 million children die in low income countries each year due to the lack of immunizations. They are dead before they reach 15 years old. Their bodies are unable to fight off the diseases that enter their bodies. They lack the interventions needed to fight off the illnesses that they would normally get in vaccinations. UNICEF and WHO setup the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy in 2003 in Africa. This was designed to provide vaccinations that would help fight off diseases. A tremendous amount of progress has been made. The number of deaths have been reduced because of the availability of vaccines Because of donations, many families are able to receive immunizations in Africa. 

Below are two of the most precious gifts that God could ever give me. I have fortunate that they have not had any life threatening illnesses. They are both healthy and avoided most of the childhood illnesses. We take risk everyday. Why would you risk your child’s life? We take medicines everyday that have side effects of some sort. Is that a good enough reason not to take it? Immunizing your child is an important part of them having a healthy life. Because of vaccinations, we worry less about them getting sick as a child.

Arevshatian, L. Clements, CJ, Lwanga, SK, Misore, AO, Ndumbe, P. Seward, JF, and Taylor, P (2012). An Evaluation of Infant Immunization In Africa: is a transformation in progress. Retrieved from http://who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/6/06-031526/en