IMMUNIZATION

Immunization



Immunization across life span

Introduction

Since the introduction of immunizations, the rate of infectious diseases has decreased dramatically. Immunizations have been produced for numerous common childhood illnesses and their usage has decreased the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases throughout the world. In fact, immunizations have had the most profound effect in preventing disease. For example, small pox was eradicated worldwide together with polio and other debilitating diseases that are now virtually unknown in the United States, principally due to immunizations. It is not surprising, therefore, that high immunization compliance rates are linked to elevated levels of overall health with fewer community infectious disease outbreaks.

In an effort to reverse a trend of low immunization compliance rates, state legislative bodies across the nation have passed laws designed to boost immunization compliance rates. While school-required immunization laws have generally increased compliance and have decreased the occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases, immunization compliance remains difficult for adolescents since they rarely visit a health care provider. This is the reason why school nurses often have an important role in immunization efforts with this population. However, professional nurses even have an important role because of their role in treating adults. All the issues related to immunization have been discussed in detail.

Background of immunization

Fear of vaccines derives from the perception of risk of both known and alleged vaccine side effects. In addition to the known side effects of vaccines (pain and redness at the injection site, fever, or swelling), vaccines have been blamed for causing asthma, autism, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, sudden infant death syndrome, and other conditions. Research shows that most parents (almost 70%) who refuse to vaccinate their children do so because they think vaccines may cause harm. As with any other drug, vaccines are not 100% safe, although serious adverse reactions are rare. Moreover, most vaccines are administered at ages when developmental problems show up for the first time. Science communicators must understand the risks and benefits of vaccines to provide an accurate description of vaccine safety issues (Castleman, 2010).

In the early 20th century, thousands of people in USA suffered from smallpox, diphtheria and measles each year. People were so afraid of these diseases that the potential side effects of the vaccines that prevented them were of little concern. Today, however, the situation has changed. Vaccines have eradicated smallpox and eliminated poliomyelitis in many countries. Once-common childhood diseases, such as chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, Homophiles influenza type b, and rabies, are now rare in the United States as a result of immunization. As these diseases become rare in the societies, the perceived risk of contracting a vaccine-preventable disease decreases, while the fear of a vaccine side effect will increase considerably in the future (Delavan, 2007).

CDC Recommendations for vaccinations

For more than a decade, the use of technology has become the mainstay for managing health records in the school setting. Parallel to this has been the development of state-specific, immunization information systems (IISs) across the United States, commonly called immunization ...