The importance of vaccination

Parents want to do everything possible to make sure their children are healthy and protected from preventable diseases. Apart from a balanced diet, exercise, proper rest etc, vaccination is one of the best ways to do so.

Vaccination protects children from serious illness and complications of vaccine-preventable diseases that can include amputations, paralysis of limbs, hearing loss, convulsions, brain damage, and even death.{{more}}

Vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, mumps and whooping cough are still a threat in many countries. They continue to infect children, resulting in hospitalizations and deaths every year.

Though vaccination has led to a dramatic decline in the number of cases of several infectious diseases, some of these diseases are quite common in other countries and are brought to the Caribbean by international travellers. If children are not vaccinated, they could easily get one of these diseases from a traveller or while travelling themselves to overseas countries.

Outbreaks of preventable diseases occur when many parents decide not to vaccinate their children. Vaccination is safe and effective. All vaccines undergo long and careful review by scientists, doctors, and by regulatory bodies to make sure they are safe.

Vaccination protects others you care about, including family members, friends, and grandparents. For example, if a child is not vaccinated and they contract a disease, they can spread it to other family members who may be immunocompromised and this can worsen the health of these individuals.

If children are not vaccinated, they can spread disease to other children who are too young to be vaccinated or to people with weakened immune systems, such as transplant recipients and people with cancer. This could result in long-term complications and even death for these vulnerable people. Children can contract and spread diseases in the school environment, where they come into contact with many children. This can lead to outbreaks that can spread easily. It is important that parents ensure that their children are vaccinated, so that they protect them from vaccine preventable diseases.

We all have a public health commitment to our communities to protect each other and each other’s children by vaccinating our own family members.

Dr Rosmond Adams is a medical doctor and a public health specialist. He may be emailed at adamsrosmond@gmail.com