Immunization and Disease: An Urgent Debate - Essay Sample

Introduction

I am writing you this letter to express my opinions and concern about a matter that is currently being debated on in our state and the whole country at large. The topic of discussion is immunization and infectious diseases. Immunization and disease is a serious health care issue that is gaining more and more opinions and views currently from the citizens of our country, and many have expressed their opinions on why they will choose not to immunize and vaccinate their newborn babies.

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I am glad to express my support for the stand of the state of Alabama on matters immunization and vaccination. According to Alabama Department of public health, the main goal of immunization is to increase the rates of immunization and reduce the rates of vaccine-preventable diseases According to Lavanchy (2005),some of these preventable diseases include measles, mumps, Hepatitis A, tetanus, Influenza ,Pertussis, and Varicella just to mention a few. The procedures for immunization dictate that newborns are subjected to various vaccines at different ages in order to prevent diseases and not to spread to other children or persons if at all not vaccinated. The Alabama department of public health requires that school-going children obtain and produce certification to show cause for the vaccines. This is a very good initiative, and the representative should ensure that any parents who are looking into not vaccinating their kids out of preferences are taught the importance of vaccinations.

In the states of California and Texas, immunization is not mandatory, and the legislative laws do not require parents to vaccinate their kids. This, therefore, has opened a social space for public debate if either it is necessary for vaccination or is it that our minds have been conditioned to think that our bodies need vaccinations to survive. Some of the very notable barriers of immunization include the health care system, provider setting and cultural beliefs of the family. According to Mestecky & McGee (2013), the health care system may fail a state by recording a great number of under immunization simply by not providing enough systematic information on the needs for immunization for the public. In addition, a shortage of care providers can be impaired to the goals to achieve immunization. Providers who take care of children may not have access to a child vaccination history details; thus may miss the chance to immunize a child if in case of a mild sickness. Lack of this information makes the provider unaware of the immunizations that the child has been exposed to therefore making it even harder to easily follow up to ensure that the full cycle for all shots and vaccines is given to the children .Personal and cultural factors are also a big hindrance to the realization of full immunization. Some families may not understand the severity and risk caused by vaccine-related diseases and thus choose not to vaccinate their children who later from the adverse effects of not receiving various vaccinations (Tickner, Leman &Woodcock, 2006).

Conclusion

In conclusion, as a member of the state of Alabama, I write to support my state's contribution to achieving increased numbers of immunization and hence putting in control the communicable vaccine-related diseases that pose a huge risk to our state and nation at large. I, therefore, say thank you to my representative and encourage him to continue with the great work.

References

Lavanchy, D. (2005). Worldwide epidemiology of HBV infection, disease burden, and vaccine prevention. Journal of clinical virology, 34, S1-S3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16461208

Mestecky, J., & McGhee, J. R. (Eds.). (2013). New Strategies for Oral Immunization: International Symposium at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Molecular Engineering Associates, Inc. Birmingham, AL, USA, March 21-22, 1988 (Vol. 146). Springer Science & Business Media. https://books.google.co.ke/books/about/New_Strategies_for_Oral_Immunization.html?id=Z78FMQAACAAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareNew

Tickner, S., Leman, P. J., & Woodcock, A. (2006). Factors underlying suboptimal childhood immunization. Vaccine, 24(49-50), 7030-7036. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.06.060