Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/ask-dr.-sue-dont-wait-vaccinate!/5008947/
Many parents think that vaccine-preventable illnesses have disappeared - that we don't need to worry about them. Some parents mistakenly believe keeping their children immunized is the job of health professionals or schools. As a nation, we have become lax in assuring that children receive this simple, cost effective disease prevention measure.Recent outbreaks of measles and whooping cough (pertussis) in the United States sounded the alarm about the need to return to vigilant use of routine, preventive child health care. In Philadelphia in 1991, an epidemic of measles involved over 1,300 children, most of them unimmunized preschoolers. Eight children died in that outbreak. Reported causes of whooping cough in the United States are on the rise. As many as half of the children in American cities have not received recommended vaccines before they are two years of age.
Immunization helps the body to resist infection by exposing the child's immune system to a modified form of the material that causes the disease. The child's immune system responds by making antibodies against the disease. For very young infants, multiple doses (exposure) to the immunizing materials are needed because the young infant's immune system needs strong ...