4 Diseases You May Have Forgotten Exist Because of Vaccination
Vaccination is a simple and effective way to protect children and adults against contagious, dangerous, and deadly diseases. Vaccines have helped reduce and, in some cases, eliminate many diseases that used to attack, kill, and disable humans. The CDC recommends taking your child for vaccination at 1 to 2 months. Consulting Cary, NC family medicine specialist can enable you to understand vaccination schedules for infants, children, and adults. Health experts and governments often carry out vaccination exercises to protect children and the rest of the population from an existing or potential outbreak.
You can only understand how vaccines work by understanding your body’s immune response mechanism. When different harmful pathogens in the form of viruses or bacteria invade your body, they attack and increase in number. Your body’s reaction to exposure to a foreign substance causes your illness.
During an attack by dangerous pathogens, your body releases white blood cells to eliminate an infection. When a pathogen invades your body for the first time, it usually takes days for your body to assemble and start using all its powers to fight infection.
However, if the same microorganism attacks you again, the body will quickly remember the tools it needs to eliminate a disease. Because you are vaccinated against a particular infection, your body is prepared and armed with the right tools (antibodies) to fight effectively.
Subsequently, below are some diseases you or your child have a small to no chance of getting when vaccinated.
- Polio
Also called poliomyelitis, polio is a virus attack mainly affecting the brain stem or spinal cord nerves. For that reason, a child with a severe form of polio will find it difficult to move some particular limbs, a condition called paralysis.
Also, polio may make your child have difficulty breathing, resulting in death.
- Tetanus
Also called lockjaw, tetanus is a serious illness that attacks your nervous system and comes from a toxin-producing bacterium.
Tetanus often causes muscle contractions in your neck and jaw and can lead to death.
You or your kids can get tetanus by stepping on sharp objects like nails. The bacteria that cause tetanus can invade your body via contaminated wounds, punctured skin, burns, or dental infections.
- Hepatitis A and B
Hepatitis A and B are infections that can seriously affect your liver. You can get hepatitis A by consuming infected water or food or fecal-oral transmission, while you can get hepatitis B through direct blood-to-blood contact.
Hepatitis B is the leading cause of serious liver diseases such as liver cancer and cirrhosis.
- Rubella
Also called German measles, rubella is a contagious viral infection associated with a distinctive red rash. The viral illness often affects children and young adults.
There is a difference between rubella and measles, even if the two diseases share similar symptoms. Unlike measles, rubella is not as contagious or as severe.
Often, you may not experience any symptoms of rubella, or they may be mild. Still, you should get a rubella vaccination as your unborn baby can get seriously infected.
Other diseases that may no longer be common because of vaccinations include Haemophilus influenza type b, measles, whooping cough, rotavirus, pneumococcal disease, mumps, and chickenpox.
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