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Vaccines are an important tool in the public health battle against disease, and have significantly reduced the incidence, morbidity, and mortality associated with several illnesses. Former scourges, such as measles, diptheria, and smallpox, have been virtually eliminated from the United States through the use of vaccines. Although vaccines provide overwhelming benefits, some people have reservations about their use. These reservation may be related to concerns about their safety or efficacy, belieds that vaccine-preventable diseases do not pose a serious risk, or objections based on religious or person beliefs. Unfortuanetly, many of these reservation may be based on myths about the relative risks and benefits of vaccines, and could result in reduced vaccination rates and increased likelihood of disease. Figure 1 (below) is the 2002 recommended schedule for childhood vaccinations. To gain an understanding of medicines triumph over a devastating disease and the developement of the process of vaccination please read Smallpox: The Triumph over the Most Terrible of the Ministers of Death from Annals of Internal Medicine 15 October 1997. 127:635-642. Click on the links below to go to valuable immunization
resources:
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System Group on Immunization Education of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine APhA Immunization Informatioin Web site Copies of the schedule can be obtained at http://www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/child-schedule.htm |
