Compulsory Immunization

Should Immunization be Compulsory?

Introduction

The basic principles of vaccination for working with imported vaccines are compliance with the "cold chain", i.e. delivery of vaccines from the manufacturer to the consumer at a certain temperature, the implementation of sanitary and hygienic standards, monitoring the state of post-vaccination, the presence of anti-shock laying the vaccination at home and in the medical facility, medical evaluation of the indications and contraindications in the choice of drugs for the vaccination.

Vaccination is the primary method of prophylactic prevention of dangerous infections, which allowed to eliminate smallpox, polio, tetanus, neonatal, and reduce the incidence of childhood infections such as measles, rubella, whooping cough, diphtheria, and mumps. Children living in large metropolitan areas are at increased risk for contact with a variety of viral diseases and epidemic situations. In this regard, the immunization schedule introduced new combination of drugs that reduce the number of injections and allow protecting against dangerous infectious diseases and common diseases in children under 6 years old (World Health Organization).

Thesis Statement

Immunization is essential for the public health and should be compulsory for children.

Immunization Programs of UN

With the goal to vaccinate children around the world for infectious diseases that cost lives and were easily preventable, in May 1974, the WHO initiated the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI), at a time when less than 5 percent of the children from low- and middle-income countries were receiving lifesaving vaccines that had been available, by then, for several years (Merson, Black, and Mills 2005). This program was renamed in 1985 and became known as Universal Child Immunisation (UCI). For the first approximately 20 years, the EPI focused on vaccines administered during the first year of life and aimed to reduce childhood mortality for six vaccine-preventable diseases: polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough or pertussis, measles, and tuberculosis. As a result of these successful initiatives, by the late 1980s, vaccination against these six diseases provided coverage for approximately 80 percent of the children worldwide. The program was later expanded to include vaccines for hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b and for yellow fever in several regions worldwide (Levine and Robins-Browne 2009).

Despite the success of the EPI and UCI, many children worldwide still did not have access to vaccines. A new effort, known as Children's Vaccine Initiative (CVI), emerged in the early 1990s and proposed to incorporate technological developments to provide immunization to more children by generating vaccines that are heat stable, affordable, protect against more infectious diseases, and can be administered as a single dose, preferably orally, near birth (Violaine, Philipose, and Sanford 1993). This project was cosponsored by five organizations: UNICEF, the WHO, the UN Development Program, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Bank. Eventually, CVI focused on exploring and strengthening the infrastructure required to develop, finance, and deliver these vaccines, a process that turned out to be slow, and this endeavor ceased to function (Milstien et al. 2008).

In the current state of global health, one of the top priorities is providing access to vaccines for ...