Pediatric Vaccination Scedules

Vaccinations are a crucial part of keeping children healthy. At birth, infants have protection against certain diseases because of the antibodies passed on from the mother to the child through the placenta. After birth, infants that are breastfed are additionally protected by antibodies present in breast milk. However in both these cases, the protection is only temporary (Cohen, 2005). By vaccinating, parents and health care providers can help keep children healthier from birth to adulthood.

Immunizations, also called vaccinations, are methods of creating immunity to certain diseases by introducing small amounts of killed or weakened bacteria or viruses that cause particular illnesses. Vaccines can also be made from toxins produced by disease organism. These toxins are altered with heat or chemicals to reduce toxicity but still retain enough function to produce an immunologic effect (Cohen, 2005). Once introduced into the body, vaccines induce the immune system to produce active antibodies to protect people from those certain diseases. In many cases though, the immunity does not last forever and the amount of circulating antibodies can decrease over time. For this reason, it is important for children to receive additional immunizations against the same disease. Called “booster shots,” these additional immunizations, administered at predetermined intervals, help the body maintain a high enough level of antibodies to continue to protect from disease (Cohen, 2005).

If children are not immunized, they are at risk for contracting and spreading many serious illnesses. Vaccines have reduced or eliminated many infectious diseases that had routinely killed or harmed many infants, children, and adults in the past. Polio, caused by a virus, causes acute paralysis that can lead to permanent disability and death. Thanks to worldwide vaccination efforts, the number of victims of polio – mostly children – had declined from more than 350,000 cases in 125 countries in 1988 to 2,000 cases of polio in 17 countries in 2006. Currently, polio has been eliminated from the Western hemisphere and from the European and Western Pacific regions (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008). Smallpox, an acute infectious disease caused by the Variola viruses, was one of the world’s most feared diseases until it was eradicated in 1979 by an extensive global vaccination program led by the World Health Organization. Prior to its elimination, smallpox caused death in as many as 30 percent of those infected. Highly contagious, it threatened 60 percent of the world’s population. Due to aggressive vaccination programs, the last known natural case of smallpox occurred in 1977 in Somalia and the last death from smallpox occurred in 1978 following a laboratory accident in England. Today, the last known strains of the viruses are contained in one of two laboratories in the world – one in the United States and one in Russia (World Health Organization, 2008). Haemophilus Influenzae type B (Hib) was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in United States infants in children before the Hib vaccine was made available. One in every 200 U.S. children under the age of 5 contracted Hib meningitis and it killed up to 600 children each year while leaving many survivors with deafness, seizures, or mental retardation. Once the Hib vaccine was introduced in 1987, the incidence of Hib has declined by 98 percent; there were less than 10 fatal cases of Hib meningitis reported from 1994 to 1998 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008).

Unfortunately, the viruses and bacteria that cause these diseases, and many others, still exist and can be contracted by people who were not immunized. It is very important for nurses and doctors alike to ensure that parents and caregivers are given proper information regarding the importance of vaccinating their children. Though most parents believe in the benefits of immunization for their children, it is possible for health care providers to encounter parents who question the need for or safety of childhood vaccines. Websites such as www.vaccinetruth.com and the Vaccination Information and Choice Network, http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.