Running head: MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY VACCINES Mandatory or voluntary vaccines Jolanda Harrison Rasmussen College MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY VACCINES 2 Some people think that it is the right of a parent to take their children for vaccination against some diseases. This thought should be twisted to checking on the effects that come upon children who are not vaccinated. Parents may decide to leave vaccinating their children if they wish to, but a question that remains is; who will be losing? Their children will be the ones who will be infected; this is something which could have been prevented instead. In this text, there is a clear explanation basing on sources to explain with examples the reason why there should be vaccination despite it seeming to be ‘optional' for parents over the world. Vaccination is important all over the world as it is used to control diseases through prevention of bacteria and virus infections (Moss & Strebel, 2011). Vaccination is important in reducing occurrences of a disease, but above all, it is more important in avoiding increased infection cases therefore reduced expense on diseases is an indirect benefit acquired from vaccination. When almost every child is vaccinated, there is a high probability that the disease is eradicated; this means money that used to be spent on such this disease can be channelled to other diseases. A good example of disease eradicated in the world is smallpox (Weiss, & Esparza, 2015). Polio is also almost being eradicated and more funds will be generated also where. This means that parents should consider eradication than just risking. Eradication is important in ensuring children live a healthy life. Poliomyelitis is one of the diseases which vaccination being offered against them. This is an infection caused by viruses and may cause paralysis, breathing problems and even death to the child. Basing on these serious effects of this disease, the parent should go for this option instead of leaving the child vulnerable to infection on this kind. MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY VACCINES 3 Some symptoms such as fever, sore throat, headache, vomiting, fatigue, back pains, neck pains and general weakness in the muscles (Howard, 2005) resemble most of the symptoms of other diseases which are common. Such diseases include typhoid and brucellosis. This resemblance may make the parents think that their children are suffering from such infections not considering poliomyelitis. This may then leave the child infected to deteriorate in terms of the immune system to an extent of dying. It is due to this that polio should be vaccinated in every child to eliminate its possibility when there is an infection with such symptoms. Measles is another disease which is usually controlled through vaccination. This disease is caused by a virus and is characterized by fever, dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, inflamed eyes and skin rash (Strebel et al 2011). When going through all these symptoms, it is evident that they can be confused with other diseases. For an example runny nose and dry cough can be confusing to a common cold and normal bacterial cough. This may make a diagnosis of this infection to become complicated if a child was not treated well. When a wrong diagnosis is done on a child infected with this virus, the child may keep worsening just because the parent decided not to have this child vaccinated against measles vaccine. This will, therefore, end up becoming dangerous to the life of this child. It is due to this that I support the fact that even though it looks like freedom is given to parents to decide for themselves, they should take vaccination as compulsory. Imagine of a case that a child is not vaccinated against polio, this is a decision made by the mother of this child because she says that she is afraid of drugs and does not want the child given chemicals (Kennedy et al 2005). The parent then takes advantage of the freedom given to parents to decide if to take or not to take children for vaccination. The child is not vaccinated and MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY VACCINES 4 is left vulnerable to poliomyelitis. This child grows healthier in the growth years and schooling takes place as usual. The health condition of this child is very much ok until the parents say that they do not see a reason they had to take the child for vaccination. At around 16 years of age, the child falls sick. He is complaining of a headache, fever and fatigue when taken to the hospital. The child is tested for malaria and typhoid but there is no positive result on them. The doctor prescribes painkillers, antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs claiming the diseases are at the early stages so they cannot be positive in those stages. The symptoms disappeared but reoccurred again after some days, this time the symptoms are accompanied by loose and floppy limbs which when taken to hospital are said to be paralyzed. The child then is diagnosed to be suffering from poliomyelitis. This makes the parents regret since paralysis that had occurred was said to be permanent. The child is forced to convert his life into using a wheelchair because of what the parent decided to do. The situation is traumatizing but it will forever affect the child. To sum up, on the above discussion, it is advisable that every parent goes for vaccination of their child at the required age and time. It is not good for the parent but for the child. A single infection that was not prevented by a vaccine may change the lifestyle of a child to an extent of blaming the parents for such a fault. Prevention is better than cure, it is also advisable from the point of view that parents will always want the best for their children; this is one of the moves which incorporate best wishes. MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY VACCINES 5 References Howard, R. (2005). Poliomyelitis And The Postpolio Syndrome. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 330(7503), 1314-1318. Strebel, P., Cochi, S., Hoekstra, E., Rota, P., Featherstone, D., Bellini, W., & Katz, S. (2011). A World Without Measles. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 204, S1-S3. Moss, W., & Strebel, P. (2011). Biological Feasibility of Measles Eradication. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 204, S47-S53. Kennedy, A., Brown, C., & Gust, D. (2005). Vaccine Beliefs of Parents Who Oppose Compulsory Vaccination. Public Health Reports (1974-), 120(3), 252-258. Weiss, R., & Esparza, J. (2015). The prevention and eradication of smallpox: A commentary on Sloane (1755) 'An account of inoculation'. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences,370(1666), 1-11.
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