Should vaccination be administered to all children?

Introduction 

Vaccination in children has been of great importance in public health in the US. Pediatrics have critically minimized the contagious illnesses and children mortality rates. Additionally, the government has initiated the coverage targets for the vaccines recommended to children. However, some people have chosen to slow down the children’s vaccinations for at least some targeted illnesses. Giving vaccinations depends on the relationship between the parental supports for complementing alternative medicine treatments and the opposition to pediatric vaccinations. According to Nandi and Shet (2020), it is approximated that childhood vaccines are approximated to save around 2 to 3 million lives globally every year, which has helped reduce global infant mortality. Vaccines are the most cost-efficient approaches to help reduce childhood diseases and improve their immunity. 

How Vaccine Works 

Vaccines contain in-active and incapacitate parts of the specific organisms that foster an immune response within the body. The new vaccines contain designs for generating antigens other than the antigens themselves. Irrespective of whether the vaccines are built of antigens to make the body generate antigens, the weak version cannot control illness in the people receiving the vaccine. It prompts the immune systems to react to the pathogens. Some vaccines need some doses, which are required to enable the generation of permanent antibodies and the growing of memory cells. Therefore, the human immune system is designed to develop pathogen recollections to quickly respond to it when exposed in the future. The vaccine protects people against illnesses (WHO, 2020) . However, some people's bodies are resistant to vaccination; those that have health challenges that weaken their immune systems may not be vaccinated with some vaccines. Vaccinating people in the community helps in wearing out the pathogens, preventing them from circulating; thus, people’s immune systems. When a child is infected, they rely upon their immune systems to control the invading organisms. The white blood cells activate and start developing antibodies that trace the infectious agents and develop a counteroffensive strategy(Healthchildren.org, 2019). Additionally, germs are unable to cause disease symptoms and strengthen the antibodies to counter organisms. The antibodies help in stopping infections and help children get well. 

Difference Between Traditional and Biotechnology Methods of Creating Vaccines 

Immunization entails the administration of antibodies and other natural defense mechanisms to safeguard against particular problems. Health organizations use traditional and biotechnology methods to create vaccines. They apply a weak and dead pathogenic germ or a toxin from the pathogen on traditional vaccines. The vaccines help in developing a memory of antigen specificity of an illness (Borkar & Goenka, 2019). Some of the traditional techniques of developing vaccines include live weakened vaccines, which provide immunity to people against certain illnesses as they generate antigen memories in lessened pathogens to host the immune system. The technique allows a person’s immune system to create basic erythrocytes for the antigenic portrayed by the weakened germs. An inactivated vaccine is another technique whereby the vaccine provides resistance to the hosts. Additionally, the immune response inactivates the virus of the host through thermal and chemical means so that it cannot replicate the organisms. 

On the other hand, biotechnology techniques apply the biological organisms, processes, and systems to create and modify genetics for certain purposes. The technique involves genetic engineering and other methods related to tissues and cells. The technology applies some techniques, such as reverse vaccinology, which involves sequencing and screening pathogenic genes by deploying bioinformatics techniques to explore the genes. The technological approach uses genetic material like DNA to identify acridity factors and novel vaccine possibilities (Chen et al., 2017). Also, the technology biogenetics sub-unit synthesizes protein materials to subunits vaccines by DNA printing technique. The tool is made up of antigens expressed through viral DNA. Additionally, a biogenetic protein vaccination tool uses pathogens to generate proteins that bring out an immune reaction from an infected body. The vaccine techniques are aimed at providing an active immune system to the pathogens. 

Diseases that Children and Babies are Vaccinated against in the United States 

Babies and children have immune systems that can fight the germs in their bodies. However, there are several illnesses that their immune systems cannot handle. Therefore, providing a vaccine is important to boost the children’s immunity. Vaccines are developed for the killer diseases and prevent incidences of diseases and save lives. Some of the vaccines meant for children and babies include whooping cough, Tetanus, polio, flu, Hib, measles, hepatitis B, A, and Rubella (CDC, 2020) . The diseases are caused by factors such as the spread of the virus from person to person. Vaccinating children and infants ensure that they cannot get affected by the virus. The vaccinations for the diseases in infants and children start when a baby is a month old. For example, medical practitioners recommend that children should be given four doses of the polio vaccine. The child should need the doses between four months, and then after four months, the third dose should be between 12 to 23 months and finally between four to six years (CDC, 2020) . Vaccination is quite important in children to provide more immunity before children are exposed to potentially life-threatening illnesses. 

Impacts of Vaccination on Disease over the 100 Years 

Immunization has helped in improving the severity of diseases in children globally. The world’s coverage of vaccinations against the significant illnesses of childhood has been improved dramatically. Polio is among the children’s illnesses that have tried to be eradicated. Despite the success in getting rid of the severe illnesses in children, about six million children die every year (Greenwood, 2014) . Additionally, most of the disease is a result of infections that could be prevented by vaccination. The study patterns in the industrialized countries' illnesses at the end of the 19 th century indicate a large and progressive reduction in the rate of death in infants and children (Greenwood, 2014) . Then reduction of the deaths is related to the improvement of nutrition, san itation, and housing. Vaccination has ensured the suppression of pathogens in diseases like smallpox. The vaccination has helped in eliminating smallpox and reducing the severity of the other infections. Eradication of smallpox has a milestone in the control of infectious illnesses and contributing to global health. Additionally, vaccines have helped disband the viruses that grow in the cell, which has led to the development of weakened vaccines. 

Moreover, vaccines have helped protect against viruses and minimize infections among those who have not been immunized. Also, vaccinations have helped in the reduction of the illness against the indigenous people across the world. The use of the vaccine has also helped to protect against illnesses associated with the disease. For example, vaccination of flu has been protective of severe otitis interna in children with an of above 30% effectiveness. (Andre et al., 2011). The invention of vaccines has helped prevent illnesses and enabled a rich, mixed have for the global population. 

Why People Worry about Vaccines. 

People have refused vaccination to their children due to personal beliefs and analytical reasons. Despite building strong immune systems, medical treatments have negative impacts on the human body. Vaccines have mild side effects, such as causing sore on the injected part and fever in the body. Besides, some people believe that vaccines can lead to autism early in life; hence they refuse to take the vaccine. Additionally, people have a lot of information regarding vaccines, which becomes overwhelming and make it difficult to make an informed decision (McKee & Bohannon, 2016) . Moreover, people believe that the vaccine causes addiction. Additionally, some people stem from religious beliefs. The people's notions are not driven by ignorance but due to the intentional and calculated decisions correlating to a strong stance. People also have their own beliefs and logical reasons. According to a study conducted by McKee and Bohannon (2016) on parents, 77% of them said to have concerns about their children’s vaccination. They expressed the concerns of religion, individual beliefs, and theoretical reasons. In spite of all theses concerns, there is no scientific evidence that supports these claims. According to CDC (2020), vaccines do not cause autism. Therefore, they are safe for children. 

Advice to the Friend 

Through vaccinations, children and infants acquire strong immune systems and prevent them from severe illnesses. I would recommend my friend to allow vaccinations for his newly born infants for the best of the child. First, allowing immunization will save the child's life due to the protection against severe diseases. Besides, vaccinating the child will help protect against child deformities and death. For example, if the child is not vaccinated against polio, they might get long-lived disabilities. Second, vaccinations are more effective and safer more than discomforts resulting from the diseases such as discomforts, pain, and disease trauma. Finally, vaccination will save his money and income as he would incur financial costs on medical bills and disabilities that might result. 

Conclusion 

Vaccines protect children from being exposed to severe illnesses. Administering vaccines helps in weakening the infections and strengthening the body’s immune system. Also, vaccines help control the spread of diseases to other people. Globally, the administration of vaccines to children and infants has helped reduce the severity of the illnesses. It has helped eliminate some illnesses, such as smallpox. Medical practitioners use traditional and biotechnology techniques to develop vaccines. However, some people have been resisting the vaccination of children due to personal beliefs, overwhelming information, and misconceptions in the media, and philosophical reasons. Vaccination should be administered to all children to build up their immunity. 

References 

Andre, F. E., Booy, R., Bock, H. L., Clemens, J., John, T. J., Lee, B. W., . . . Santosham, M. S. (2011). Bulletin of the World Health Organization; Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death, and inequity worldwide . World Health Organziation. https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/2/07-040089/en/ 

Borkar, T. G., & Goenka, V. (2019). Techniques employed in production of traditional vaccines commonly used by military forces: A review. Journal of Archives in Military Medicine, 7 (1-2). 

CDC (2020). Vaccine safety. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html 

CDC. (2020). Vaccines for Your Children; Disease you almost forgot about . https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/diseases/forgot-14-diseases.html 

Chen, Y., Cheng, H., Yang, Y., & Yeh, M. (2017). Biotechnologies applied in biomedical vaccines . IntechOpen 

Greenwood, B. (2014). The contribution of vaccination to global health: past, present, and future. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci., 369 (1645). https://dx.doi.org/10.1098%2Frstb.2013.0433 

Healthchildren.org. (2019). How do vaccines work? https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/immunizations/Pages/How-do-Vaccines-Work.aspx 

McKee, C., & Bohannon, K. (2016). Exploring the reasons behind parental refusal of vaccines. J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther. , 104-109. https://dx.doi.org/10.5863%2F1551-6776-21.2.104 

Nandi, A., & Shet, A. (2020). Why vaccines matter: understanding the broader health, economic, and child development benefits of routine vaccination. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 16 (8), 1900-1904. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2019.1708669 

WHO. (2020, December 8). How do vaccines work? https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/how-do-vaccines-work#:~:text=Vaccines%20contain%20weakened%20or%20inactive,rather%20than%20the%20antigen%20itself.