Monday, January 13, 2014

Child Development and Public Health

Immunization is meaningful to me because vaccines are among the safest medical products available and can prevent the suffering and costs associated with infectious diseases. It’s not only important to stay healthy to protect yourself, but also to protect your children, your grandchildren, coworkers, and the older people in your life, too. Without, immunization, I would have to miss work leaving those unable to care for themselves and depend on me in everyday life. Vaccinations from birth through adulthood provide a lifetime of protection against many diseases and infections. During the 20th century, many infectious diseases-that killed thousands of people each year-were either eliminated or controlled by immunizations in the United States.

Unlike some countries, immunization is not mandatory, in Canada; it cannot be made mandatory because of the Canadian Constitution. Only three provinces have legislation or regulations under their health-protection acts to require proof of immunization for school entrance. Requiring proof of immunization for school entrance serves two main purposes. First, parents who have forgotten to have their children properly immunized will be reminded and can rectify the situation. Second, parents who do not wish to have their children immunized must actively refuse and sign documents attesting to that fact. In some provinces and territories, the public health-care system administers immunization programs; infants and children receive their vaccinations at public-health clinics. In other provinces and territories, vaccinations are primarily given by private physicians who order vaccines from local public-health units.

This information has a great impact on my future work because an unvaccinated person is a threat to people. Diseases do not stop at the borders. People can bring vaccine preventable diseases into our country and spread them to people who are not vaccinated. Our society depends on everyone working together to ensure that all of us can be safe. One of the ways we can play our part is to make sure that your family gets the right shots at the right time. Shots may hurt a…little, but the disease they can prevent can hurt a lot more.

3 comments:

  1. Vaccination is very important. I love sharing this example with others about vaccination.

    "Think of germs as rain. Vaccination is a raincoat. Even with a raincoat on, you can still get wet. You need an umbrella, too. The umbrella is "herd immunity." Those who don't vaccinate expect someone to share their umbrella when it rains. But society can only buy umbrellas TOGETHER. And raincoats aren't made for newborns- they need umbrellas!" (Fields & Brown, 2012)

    Reference:
    Fields, D., & Brown, A. (2012). Baby 411. Boulder: Windsor Peak Press. DOI: baby411.com

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  2. I agree with you! Vaccinations are important. It could be the deciding factor between life and death if an outbreak were to occur! I can't believe that it's not mandatory in Canada! I am glad that we live in a place that require immunizations.

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  3. I always thought that immunizations were a good idea until controversy struck regarding vaccines being linked to autism. I don't have children of my own but this is something that I am interested in researching further. Of course, I want children to be well. I just hope that our healthcare system will always seek the best way to keep children safe from disease. Babycenter.com has an article that sheds some light on this an helps to ease the fears of it's readers. The article is called, Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction. Here's the link: http://www.babycenter.com/0_vaccines-and-autism-separating-fact-from-fiction_1470554.bc

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