by Katerina Maher

Created on: March 23, 2009

As a health care professional and a mother, I must agree with mandatory vaccinations for children. Yes, there is a lot of bad media about vaccinations, but lets not forget, the media never reports good news. Providing the mandatory vaccination allows various exceptions, such as allergies to the ingredients, the American public can only gain from mandatory vaccinations. First, what are most of these mandatory vaccinations? Then, let's revisit pre-vaccination era, where various debilitating infections were rampant in the United States. Finally, let us realize that unless we are discussing Small Pox, most of these viruses are still present and will still infect your children. If you still wish to keep vaccinations from becoming mandatory, I pray your child agrees with you.

The United States, 2009 recommended immunisation schedule for persons aged 0 through 6 years includes vaccinations for Hepatitis B, Rotavirus, Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis (whooping cough), Haemophilus influenzae type b, Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Varicella (chicken pox), Hepatitis A and Pneumococcal. Quite the list. And yes, to one who does not realize it, they may think it "overloads" the system. Do you know what does overload a child's system? Any of these infections if the child has not had their vaccinations! Polio leaves it's victims crippled, in the best case scenario. Tetanus kills. Chicken pox? Just something you go through as a child, right? No. It stays in your spinal fluid and when you are at your worst will come out to visit as Shingles for the rest of your life. Diphtheria will kill up to 20% of the children under 5 years old that it infects, and treatment to this day, will not help in a severe infection. Mumps can cause sterility in males and hearing loss. Measles infections can spread to the brain and cause blindness. I haven't even reached the Hepatitis viruses yet.

Need I continue?

Here are a few facts about these infections before vaccines were introduced.

Polio paralyzed 10,000 children per year! Rubella would cause mental retardation and birth defects in 20,000 newborns per year. 4 million children would get measles per year, 3,000 of them would die, and countless would be left blind. Diphtheria, which most of us only know as the vaccine was the most common cause of death in school-children. Haemophilus influenzae type b caused meningitis in about 15,000 children per year, leaving many with permanent brain damage. And thousands of infants died from pertussis (whooping cough).

Now? Some of these infections are still present in the community, but definitely not to the same level as before. Not all vaccines have the same efficiency but the odds you have off a serious side effect from the immunizations is altogether lower than the risk of a serious complication from only one of the infections mentioned above. But as I have just said, these infections are still floating around. They are still as contagious as ever. 90% of people in the room with a person with measles will catch it, unless immunized. So, if you want to give your child a chance at life free from possible blindness, hearing loss, mental retardation and being crippled, trust. Trust that although all medications have side effects, vaccines are indeed in the publics best interest. And because of this, they should be made mandatory!

To give a source, in case you want more information, I have included a link. http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.js p?id=81901

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