The
importance of Immunization
I choose to discuss the importance of
immunizations because when it comes to children’s health and well-being some
parents do not understand. I am a director in a Head Start program and one of
the health regulations in our county is children be up-to-date on the immunizations
to attend childcare programs. We have children
coming to enroll with only the immunizations given in the hospital at birth. Parents
get upset when tell children need to go to health care provider to get much
need immunizations.
All children should be immunized at
regular health care visits, beginning at birth immunizations are very important
in keeping our children healthy. The recommended childhood and adolescent
schedule urges shots starting at birth and going through 24 months of age, with
boosters and catch-up vaccines continuing through the teenage years and into
old age. By immunizing, we safeguard our children against the potentially
devastating effects of vaccine preventable diseases. No child should ever have
to endure the effects of vaccine preventable diseases, simply because he or she
was not vaccinated on time. Catastrophic effects of childhood diseases can lead
to life-long illness or even death.
The United States has experienced
outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases in the past several years - diseases
that imperil our children's health and future. The primary cause for the 1989 -
1991 outbreaks of measles and resurgence of other vaccine preventable diseases
has not been the failure of the vaccines to protect, but rather the failure of
the health care system to deliver the vaccines to the children at the
recommended ages.
In countries
like Africa there are more than 30 million children are unimmunized either
because vaccines are unavailable, because health services are poorly provided
or inaccessible, or because families are uninformed or misinformed about when
and why to bring their children for immunization. I was happy to learn that
organizations such as UNICEF is working to expanding immunization coverage too
hard to reach communities to help reduce infant mortalities due to not receiving
proper vaccinations and to improve maternal health for their parents.
No
matter what country a child is from they have a right to be protected against
preventable diseases. Parents
must not wait until their children enter school to immunize them. Immunization
is the most cost-effective preventive health measure available to children.
http://www.unicef.org/immunization/index_why.html
I also work for the Early Head Start program and I see that parents have a problem of not having their immunization done since birth. I wish they take this matter serious because children need them shots to prevent them from preventable disease. This is a serious matter because what my director do is check their immunization shot record and if they are not updated she do not let them enrolled at the center.
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