Immunization (vaccination) is a way of creating immunity to certain diseases by using small amounts of a killed or weakened microorganism that causes the particular disease.It is one of the best ways you can protect yourself and your children against infectious disease. By stimulating your body's natural resistance to disease — thereby creating immunity — vaccines are your first line of defense against the likes of polio, measles, mumps, rubella, influenza, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.
Children are exposed to many foreign antigens every day. Eating food introduces new bacteria into the body, and numerous bacteria live in the mouth and nose, exposing the immune system to still more antigens. An upper respiratory viral infection exposes a child to four to ten antigens, and a case of "strep throat" to 25 - 50. According to "Adverse events Associated with childhood vaccines", a 1994 report from the Institute of Medicine in the United States, "In the face of these normal events, it seems unlikely that the number of separate antigens contained in childhood vaccines . . . would represent an appreciable added burden on the immune system that would be immuno-suppressive."
Indeed, available scientific data show that simultaneous vaccination with multiple vaccines has no adverse effect on the normal childhood immune system.Microorganisms can be viruses, such as the measles virus, or they can be bacteria, such as pneumococcus. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to react as if there were a real infection — it fends off the "infection" and remembers the organism so that it can fight it quickly should it enter the body later.The immediate result of immunization is the prevention of dangerous, potentially life-threatening infectious illnesses. The long-term goal of an immunization program is the complete eradication of a disease.
In fact, there's no evidence that children are less likely to have a reaction to a vaccine when they're older. Moreover, children under 2 are at higher risk than older children for contracting some of these diseases and are more likely to have serious complications if they're infected.Researchers have already weighed the risk to young children of having a reaction against that of contracting one of these serious illnesses, and concluded that the benefits far outweigh the risks.
In 1979, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the success of a 10-year program to eradicate smallpox. Smallpox had been a devastating disease for centuries. It killed 30 percent of those who were infected. Most survivors were left with disfiguring scars. Many were blinded from corneal scarring.
Routine Childhood Vaccines. Experts recommend that all children be routinely vaccinated against the following diseases:
Measles.
Mumps.
Rubella (German measles).
Diphtheria.
Tetanus.
Pertussis (whooping cough).
Poliomyelitis (polio).
Chickenpox.
Hepatitis B.
Hepatitis A (recommended in selected states and in certain high-risk populations).
H. influenzae type B (a cause of meningitis).
Influenza (children aged 6-23 months).
Pneumococcal disease.
Many vaccinations are first given during infancy. Even premature infants can, in most cases, be given vaccinations on a normal schedule. There is even some evidence that doing so may offer some slight protection against sudden infant death syndrome.Caring for a premature baby is a physical and emotional challenge. The miracle of birth may be overshadowed by anxiety about your baby's health and the possible long-term effects of prematurity. You may feel anger, guilt, sorrow or regret — perhaps at the same time.
Infants born extremely preterm mount similar immune responses as those born at term to the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and the chickenpox vaccine, a study shows.
"We do these studies because assuming what is right for full-term babies is right for very premature babies sometimes leads us to the wrong decisions," lead author Dr. Carl T. D'Angio told Reuters Health.
D'Angio of the University of Rochester, New York, and colleagues compared the immune status before and after immunization with MMR and chickenpox vaccines at 15 months in 32 infants.
Sixteen of the infants were born very prematurely at less than 29 weeks' gestation and the other 16 infants were born at term. Blood was drawn before vaccination and at 3 to 6 weeks thereafter.
The researchers found, as mentioned, that the premature infants responded as well as the full term infants to MMR vaccination and chickenpox vaccination.
"These findings," concluded D'Angio, "should reassure pediatricians and the families of premature babies that giving the MMR and (chickenpox) shots on time is the best way to protect these children from these diseases."
Premature infant should immunize at usual recommended chronological age with the standard vaccine dose .
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