Introduction
The health of the nation is one of the major concerns of modern society. Due to the multiple efforts and focus on the cultivation of healthy lifestyle humanity managed to achieve significant success in struggling with many diseases. Today, there are only rare cases of illnesses that previously killed millions of people and devastated lands. To a greater degree, it is a preconditioned by the scientific progress and appearance of vaccines that radically altered the situation in the healthcare sector and decreased mortality rates of newborns.
However, regardless of the apparent positive effect of vaccinations on the health of the nation, there are multiple fears associated with this practice presupposing that there are some risks because of the damage done to various organs. In the majority of cases, these concerns are related to the lack of information about how modern vaccines work and can be eliminated by effective educational work.
Mechanism of Functioning
First of all, the mechanism of functioning should be explained. In general, it can be described as a specific training course for the immune system of a person. The fact is that when the body firstly faces a pathogen, virus, or another foreign invader, it needs several days to introduce an appropriate response by producing antibodies that try to eliminate antigens and protect an individual from the further development of the disease (Griesenauer & Kinch, 2017).
However, it can take several days which is too long when speaking about some serious systemic problems. For this reason, there is a need for a tool that will help the body and the immune system to work more effectively. Vaccines are made of dead or weakened antigens that cannot precondition the development of infection; however, they are still recognized as enemies and initiate the production of antibodies (Griesenauer & Kinch, 2017). It helps the immune system to create memory cells that will remain in the body and help it to recognize and eliminate antigens if they appear again.
New Methods
Accepting the importance of this practice, scientists devote much attention to the development of new ways to produce safer and more effective vaccines that can save people and promote the further improvement of the health of the nation. Traditional methods presupposed the generation of antigens using specific cell lines. Being grown in bioreactors, they are later isolated and weakened to ensure that the body will recognize the danger but will not suffer from it (Griesenauer & Kinch, 2017).
However, there are many new approaches that are developed today and considered a safer option. For instance, biotechnology is used today to separate a pure antigen using special monoclonal antibodies or to synthesize an antigen using cloned genes (Griesenauer & Kinch, 2017). Additionally, the usage of cultural mammalian cells can be considered another innovative option preconditioning the outstanding success of vaccination practices and improving along with the minimization of risks.
Diseases
The importance of vaccination and adherence to the specific schedule is also evidenced by the fact that all civilized countries with the developed infrastructure insist on using this tool to protect babies from the most dangerous diseases, decrease mortality, and increase the quality of people’s lives. Thus, in the USA, there is a focus on the improvement of the health of the nation with an emphasis on the necessity to vaccinate all children.
That is why the routine vaccination includes such diseases as hepatitis B, rotavirus, diphtheria, hepatitis A, influenza, measles, mumps, chickenpox, meningococcal, varicella, human papillomavirus (McKee & Bohannon, 2016). All these illnesses might have a significant effect on the health of an individual and cause substantial harm. That is why there is a strong recommendation to ensure that a child has all these vaccines and will be able to grow not suffering from various complications.
Reduction of Incidence
If to analyze statistics related to the discussed issue, one can also see the positive impact vaccinations have on the frequency of diseases mentioned above. First of all, mainly due to the effective use of this tool, humanity managed to minimize the threat from such severe illnesses as diphtheria (100% decrease), measles (99% decrease), smallpox (100%), and rubella (99%) (Greenwood, 2014). Additionally, significant improvement can be seen if to speak about hepatitis A (91%), hepatitis B (83%), and H. influenza (99%) (Greenwood, 2014).
These numbers evidence that modern vaccination practice can be considered an effective tool to struggle against various contagious or severe diseases and improve the quality of people’s lives. Additionally, a reduction in these numbers means that millions of people are saved and can live enjoying the high quality of their lives.
Fears
However, regardless of these statistics, there are still some people who are worried about giving their children vaccines and create a dangerous precedent. In general, there are four main groups of reasons that precondition such behavior which are religious reasons, personal beliefs, safety concerns, and lack of information about the issue (McKee & Bohannon, 2016). Today, there is a belief that a vaccine can cause substantial harm to a child by affecting his/her organs and preventing him/her from sustainable development because of the injection of a virus (McKee & Bohannon, 2016). Trying to protect their children, parents might refuse the proposed schedule and avoid vaccination. The movement of anti-vaccinationists is rather a popular today which can be considered a direct threat to the health of the nation.
Scientific Evidence
From the scientific point of view, there are no reasons for the refusal of vaccines. First of all, the current scientific progress results in the evolution of the methods that are used to invent effective vaccination practices. It results in an improved opportunity to struggle against pathogens (McKee & Bohannon, 2016).
Additionally, investigations prove that the risks of being damaged by modern immunization practices are insignificant if compare with the risk of becoming ill or affected by one of the diseases that can be prevented by vaccines (McKee & Bohannon, 2016). Moreover, there is also a focus on the minimization of adverse effects that might appear in people and guarantee that they will not suffer from various complications. For this reason, modern vaccination can be considered a safe practice that should be accepted by all people.
Conclusion
Altogether, the modern world significantly benefits from the creation, introduction, and further development of various immunization practices that are used to prevent the evolution of diseases that can be fatal to people. For this reason, it is strongly recommended for everyone to become vaccinated and guarantee a high quality of life along with the absence of problems in the future. Moreover, the use of innovative techniques along with the constant improvement of available vaccines results in the achievement of better outcomes. That is why every person should adhere to this practice to enjoy a high quality of life as there are no reasons to disregard it.
References
Greenwood, B. (2014). The contribution of vaccination to global health: Past, present and future. Philosophical Transactions B, 369(1645). Web.
Griesenauer, R., & Kinch, M. (2017). An overview of FDA-approved vaccines & their innovators. Expert Review of Vaccines, 16(12), 1253-1266. Web.
McKee, C., & Bohannon, K. (2016). Exploring the reasons behind parental refusal of vaccines. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 21(2), 104-109. Web.