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Why Vaccinate Our Children?

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

My wife was given the unpleasant task of taking our children to the doctors for their immunizations (same as vaccination). However, one time my wife couldn't take our six-month-old son, and it became my responsibility to take him to get his shots. It was unpleasant. My son looked up at me after getting his shots with bewildered eyes. His eyes seemed to say, "Dad, how could you let them do that to me. I trusted you to protect me from the hurts in life." Right then and there I decided that my wife was much better at taking our children for their shots, and that sometimes parents have to allow little hurts now to save major hurts in the future.

Giving our children shots is not easy nor would I call it a fun experience. However, the consequences of not immunizing our children can be much, much worse. At the beginning of the 20th century, before immunizations were available, infectious diseases were widely prevalent in the United States and exacted a tremendous toll on the population. In 1900, 21,064 smallpox cases were reported and 894 patients died. In 1920, 469,924 measles cases were reported and 7575 patients died; 147,991 diphtheria cases were reported and 13,170 patients died. In 1922, 107,473 pertussis (whooping cough) cases were reported and 5099 patients died. Hundreds of thousands of people were getting sick and thousands were dying. Click here for more information.

With the advent of immunizations for the organisms that cause these diseases, a dramatic reduction in the diseases resulting from these infections has been recorded. Each year I poll my medical students to see how many of them have gotten the mumps or measles. Only 1 or 2 in a class of 140 students will raise their hands. Those students are usually my age. I grew up before the mumps and measles vaccines, and I got both diseases. Nearly everyone in my class in school got those diseases. Now, those diseases are very rare.

So what is the bottom line here? I believe we as parents should vaccinate our children because it could potentially save their lives. Now, not all people who are vaccinated will be protected from the disease they are immunized against. In fact, some opponents of vaccination say that only the vaccinated people seem to get these diseases. Why is that? Next week, I will answer that question.

Take Care and Think Microbiologically!

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