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Some of the Benefits of Vaccination Essays

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The Benefits of Vaccination Vaccinations are one of the single most important things one can do for the health of their children. Although, it has been a subject of recent controversy, the benefits of being vaccinated far outweigh not being vaccinated. Instead of taking medical advice from an actress, or buying into the conspiracy theories that suggest the government is using immunizations in an attempt to poison the population, parents need to spend a little time doing some research on the matter. Vaccinations were developed to preserve human life. If popular opinion concerning immunizations changes, countless illnesses, hospitalizations and even deaths will be prevented. If they do not, we are going to see a spike in needless childhood …show more content…

Prior to those days, children often came down with infectious diseases, and many of them died. For example, outbreaks of smallpox wreaked havoc upon the towns and villages it visited, claiming the lives of millions (Young, n.d. para. 5). People also tended to live in crowded conditions and drank contaminated water, often polluted with human waste. Unfortunately, in those days people were unaware of germs and their link to contagious illnesses. With primitive treatments, such as bloodletting, and leaches—and without knowledge of immunizations, antibiotics, or even hand washing, many succumbed to terrible illness. Children in 17th century England died of diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, smallpox, mumps, rubella, polio, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pneumococcal infection and dysentery caused by rotavirus. Today, we immunize children against each of those ailments, except for smallpox and polio. In 1970, smallpox was declared eradicated. Polio, however, “is limited to a handful of countries in the world—mainly India, a few countries in the Middle East, and some parts of Africa” (Young, n.d. para. 10). Each year, there are about 1,000 cases of polio being diagnosed. Frighteningly, the bacteria that cause all of these serious conditions are still around today. These illnesses could begin to reappear in our society if contracted by those who are not immunized. Currently, there are 23 shots that babies are

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