Between the recent measles outbreak and the fear that the Ebola virus incited across the world, vaccines are, once again, at the forefront of the American discourse. Whether or not to vaccine children has long been a hotly debated controversy among parents, pediatrics doctors, and celebrities, but there are a few important facts should always be considered when it comes to deciding whether or not to vaccinate. Here are three of the benefits of vaccinating children and why it’s an essential part of pediatric care.
1. To Protect Your Child From Disease
This one is obvious. Taking a child to a pediatric medical center to get vaccinated is going to protect him or her from contracting whichever disease the vaccine is designed to prevent. Children who do not have the measles vaccine are 35 times more likely to catch it. Children who do not have the pertussis vaccine are 8 times more likely to contract it. There is a reason that polio is not an issue anymore, and it’s because a vaccine was developed to prevent it.
2. To Protect Other Children From Disease
Aside from protecting a child from catching a disease, vaccinating also helps reduce the spread of diseases. Children who have certain diseases can easily infect others, who can go on to infect others, and so on. The spread of disease can be greatly increased just by one child having it, so each child that is vaccinated helps make other children a little safer and the disease less likely to spread.
3. Serious Side Effects Are Rare
A parent should always talk to their children’s pediatric physician about the possible side effects of any vaccine or treatment, but major side effects of vaccines are actually very rare. In fact, they are literally one in a million. This bears repeating: only one out of every million children who are vaccinated in a pediatric office suffer from serious side effects.
Do you think vaccines are an essential part of pediatric care? Feel free to share your opinion with us in the comments section below.