Why Is Measle Vaccination Important

These articles have spurred a controversy about vaccinations and have discouraged parents from them. Reluctance to vaccinate has increased over the past years and has caused parents to neglect the fact that they need to vaccinate their kids. Under-immunization has caused the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and measles to breakout in schools. Concern for recent outbreaks has lead me to pose the question: Should it be mandatory to vaccinate your kids?

Between 1924 and 2013, vaccinations prevented 103 million cases of polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis A, diphtheria, and pertussis (Bailey). Vaccinating is “the process by which pathogenic cells are injected into a healthy person in an attempt to cause the body to develop antibodies to a particular virus or bacterium—successful creation of antibodies is referred to as immunity to the disease caused by the particular pathogen” (Introduction to Should Vaccinations be Mandatory). Popular conflicts regarding vaccination include the worry that this form of immunization isn’t natural, the idea that vaccination schedule for children in the U.S. takes away parents’ rights to make decisions for their children, and the concern that vaccinations aren’t safe for all children. Most doctors and scientists advocate for vaccinations in the name of herd immunity, protection against foreign diseases and prevention against pockets of disease outbreaks. Vaccinations should be mandatory for all children in the United States for who they are deemed safe and effective.

Children should be required to have certain vaccinations in order to help prevent them from contracting life threatening diseases. In the past, thousands of children were paralyzed by polio or killed by diphtheria, but now, thanks to vaccinations, these diseases are no longer a major threat in the United States (“The Success of Vaccines.”) Although many diseases have become less of a threat, there are still those that are still those that pose a danger to people in today’s world. One of these diseases is measles. Measles is a viral disease that kills hundreds of people a

Measles was discovered in the 19th century by a Persian Doctor, but was not recognized until 1957 as an infectious agent in human blood by a Scottish physician. In 1912 measles became a notifiable disease and in the first decade that records were kept there was on average 6,000 deaths per year reported from the disease. (Center For Disease Control). There is no definite origination of measles but scientists believe that it dates back to the Roman Empire about the 11th and 12th century (NCBI, 2010). The first outbreak known in America was in 1657 in Boston,

One in every 1000 children who contract measles will develop encephalitis, one in 1000 children will die from it, and 25% will have neurological brain damage (National Center for Immunizations n.d.). Morbidity: The most common is ear infections--one in every 20 people with measles will have permanent hearing damage (CDC, 2015). Expectant mothers who contract the disease can go into premature labor and birth, have a spontaneous abortion, or deliver a low birth weight baby.

Since the outbreak of measles in 2000, an increasing number of parents have refuse to get their child vaccinated. The majority of parents refuse to follow the vaccination schedule and requesting to receive a schedule differ than that of the American Academy of Pediatric. Only a small number of parents refuse to allow their children to receive all vaccinations. Some even want their children to only receive a certain number of vaccination (Hendrix, 2015).

In recent years there has been a movement against giving vaccines to children, that now has nearly 40% of parents in the United States following along. But it is due to these vaccines that most children today have never experienced diseases such as polio or the measles such as their grandparents have. Since they have not seen these diseases, parents feel it is unnecessary to vaccinate them for fear of developing the possible side effects or because of reports they cause autism. However, these vaccines are critical for eradicating these deadly infectious diseases, and are vitally needed to keep them under control. Which makes it absolutely necessary that children who wish to attend school have mandatory vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles, without exception. Therefor this paper will show the benefits of getting vaccinated far out weigh the risks such as potentially saving your child 's life, protecting your families, and saving your family time and money from enduring prolonged hospital stays. That the risks of getting the diseases such disfigurement, paralysis, even death, or the very serious threat posed to people with medical exemptions like those who are immunocompromised are worse than the side effects of the vaccines. And yes, vaccines do have side effects, but not one of them is autism, and there is ample scientific evidence to back it up. It is vital to everyone that the current laws for mandatory vaccination of school age

We have all heard the old saying a bad apple can spoil the whole barrel. However, now there is research to prove it, at least in work situations . In the podcast, Ira Felps speaks to a professor in the Netherlands, who created an experiment to see what happens to productivity when a bad worker joins a team. Felps separated people into small groups and then gave them a task. One member of the group was an actor, after a short amount of time the rest of the group started behaving like the bad apples as well. The next part of the podcast talked about measles vaccinations. Measles cases are higher than they've been in decades mainly because more parents are nervous and refusing to vaccinate their children. Recently, an unvaccinated 7-year-old boy

Just like any other injection, there is the possibility of side effects. Most common among vaccines are swelling at injection site, redness, headaches, and sore throats which are temporary. At only less than 1%, 1 out of 1,000,000, do serious side effects happen

The recent measles outbreak occurring at Disneyland in December 2014 became widespread news and rekindled an ongoing debate of childhood vaccination. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is the United States government agency responsible for the protection of Americans from health threats, there were 159 incidents of measles arising from this outbreak (“Morbidity and Mortality” 373). Considering this outbreak, it is not unexpected that the role of vaccination would come to the forefront. The CDC presently advocates 29 vaccinations for children from birth through the age of six years old (“2016 Recommended Immunizations” 1). However, each state respectively establishes the laws for vaccination and corresponding vaccine medical, religious, and philosophical exemptions. For comparison purposes, in the early 1970’s, only three vaccinations were recommended (The Merck Manual 1462). This growth is a 314% surge in the number of vaccinations encouraged by the CDC. Thus, the subject of vaccinations and corresponding exemptions is contentious, divisive, and widely debated. Indeed, some believe that childhood vaccinations should be mandatory in order to protect every individual from preventable diseases (Gostin 1100). Instead, vaccination should be an informed parental choice, not mandated by the federal government, because vaccine safety is questionable, diseases being vaccinated against have fundamentally

Symptoms include high fever, cough, runny nose, and a rash, and can lead to pneumonia, hospitalization, or death. The infection can leave permanent damage to the brain and lungs. There is no antiviral medication for measles so it is easier to prevent it than to treat it. In 2016, the US had 70 confirmed cases of measles, mostly in unvaccinated people, and there were 73 confirmed cases of measles in unvaccinated children in Minnesota June 2017 alone (Howard, 2017, ¶2-3). Kristen Ehresmann, the director of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control Division at the State Department of Health said, “Many of the cases could have been prevented if people had gotten vaccinated” (Ehresmann,2017, ¶4). At least 8,250 people were exposed to the measles, mostly in schools, daycares, and healthcare facilities. There were a total of 21 hospitalizations (Howard, 2017, ¶6). A situation where vaccines did stop an outbreak was in 2005 when an 18-month-old Amish girl contracted polio and spread the disease to four other children who were too young to be vaccinated, but because the community had their vaccines, the herd immunity prevented a massive outbreak (Vaccine ProCon, 2018,

In light of the recent resurgence and spread of diseases such as measles and whooping cough, the argument of mandatory childhood vaccinations has arisen. These outbreaks have been caused mainly by unvaccinated children. Parents’ fears of immunizations and the effects of their ingredients has compelled the parents to refuse to give the vaccines to their children. Yet, the inoculations are there to protect their children and people around them from contracting or spreading diseases. Even though there is a fear that vaccinations could cause autism, child vaccinations should not be a choice because vaccines are proven to very rarely have adverse effects, they stop diseases and/or possible epidemics, and an unvaccinated child is at risk of obtaining and spreading disease.

Some patients will develop pneumonia as a sequel to the measles. Other complications include ear infections, bronchitis (either viral bronchitis or secondary bacterial bronchitis), and encephalitis. Acute measles encephalitis has a mortality rate of 15%. While there is no specific treatment for measles encephalitis, antibiotics are required for bacterial pneumonia, sinusitis, and bronchitis that can follow measles.

Now, many once-forgotten diseases are reappearing. TIME Magazine reported that “In 2014, the U.S. experienced a major outbreak of measles that totaled 383 cases and was primarily spreading among an unvaccinated Amish community in Ohio.” (Measles Outbreak) The number of cases of these diseases is going up when it can be easily prevented. Worldwide, “Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available.” (World Health

Although it is very important to immunise against this disease, the vaccine does have side-effects, and no vaccine is completely safe. The Measles vaccine is given as part of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. The common and less severe side effects are; fever; mild rash; temporary pain or stiffness of joints,