Dr Tenukala Aier
Consultant, Paediatrics Department (Child Health), CIHSR, 4th Mile Dimapur
As a parent, you want to give your child a healthy start in life. Getting your child vaccinated is one of every parent’s first big parental decisions. Immunization is the single most important way parents can protect their children from serious diseases. This makes the decision to immunize your child an important one, especially since there are no effective alternatives to immunization.
All parents and especially those having a baby for first time have so many questions regarding immunization. What is immunization? Is it safe? Are there any side effects? Are all vaccines really necessary? World Health Organization (WHO) defines Immunization as the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease.
Immunizations are the number one public health achievement of the last century, saving millions of lives and preventing illness and lifelong disability in millions more.Immunization is estimated to avert between 2 and 3 million deaths each year. Many childhood diseases now preventable by vaccines often resulted in hospitalization, death or lifelong consequences only a few decades ago.
Importance of immunization:
• Protects your child from serious vaccine preventable diseases
• Prevent the spread of those diseases to others
• Prevent serious outbreaks of many of the diseases that we are now protected from (example measles, diphtheria, whooping cough)
• It’s so important that for enrollment in school orday care, proof of immunization is often a prerequisite.
What are the vaccine preventable diseases?
Under Universal Immunization Program(UIP), Government of India (GoI) is providing vaccination to prevent Seven vaccine preventable diseases, namely Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, Hepatitis B &Tuberculosis. Vaccines for Haemophilus influenza type b,Japanese encephalitis (endemic areas) are provided in selected states.
However, with the advances in medical sciences many new vaccines for diseases like Rota viral diarrhoea, hepatitis A, chickenpox, mumps, rubella, pneumococcal pneumonia, typhoid, cervical cancer are also available. For more information, one can contact their nearest child specialist.
What if your child misses his/her immunization schedule?
It's important to keep your child's immunizations on schedule and up to date, but if your child misses a scheduled dose he or she can "catch up" later.
Any Side effects of immunization?
In most cases these are usually mild and disappear in a few days. Most common minor reactions to an immunization are:
• Soreness or redness around the injection site
• Low-grade fever
• Rash In extremely rare instances some children can have fever >104o F, serious allergic reaction to a vaccine. If you think your child has or may have an allergyto any component in a vaccine, be sure to share that information with your doctor.
Vaccine myths and facts: Myth 1: Better hygiene and sanitation will make diseases disappear – vaccines are not necessary. FALSE
Fact 1: While better hygiene, hand washing and clean water help protect people from infectious diseases, many infections can spread regardless of how clean we are. If people are not vaccinated, diseases that have become uncommon, such as polio and measles, will quickly reappear.
Myth 2: Giving a child more than one vaccine at a time can increase the risk of harmful side-effects, which can overload the child’s immune system. FALSE
Fact 2: Scientific evidence shows that giving several vaccines at the same time has no adverse effect on a child’s immune system. Myth 3: Vaccines cause autism. FALSE
Fact 3: Because symptoms of Autism occur around the same time as the first measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and other immunizations in children, some have assumed that there is a link between thimerosal (a preservative used in vaccine) and autism. In 2004, Institutes of Medicine report concluded that there is no association between autism and vaccines.
Conclusion: As the saying goes PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE, it’s much easier and more cost-effective to prevent a disease than to treat it. That's exactly what immunizations aim to do.
