Question

4. In your work in a county public health clinic, you encounter parents of a three-month-old who are considering not vaccinating their child. As a microbiology student and public health care worker, what do you say to these parents regarding the risks of not vaccinating their child? Make sure to include and emphasize the importance of herd immunity in your argument.

Answer 1

Risks of not Vaccinating the Child -

1. Child should get vaccinated because vaccines prevent infectious diseases

2. Without vaccines child is at risk for getting seriously ill and suffering pain disability and even death from serious diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough.

3. Vaccine protects child from serious illness and complications of vaccine preventable disease which can include paralysis of limbs, hearing loss, convulsions, brain damage.

4. Vaccinating the child also plays an important role in community as a part of herd Immunity.

5. Herd Immunity occurs when a significant amount of the population is protected through vaccination against virus or bacteria making difficult for a disease to spread because of less susceptible people left to infect.

6. Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious diseases that occurs when a large percentage of population become immune to an infection there by providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune

7. Vaccines that provide Herd immunity are -

a. Measles

b. Mumps

c. Rubella

The measles, Mumps, Rubella MMR vaccine is 97% effective at preventing measles, when more percentage of people in a community gets this vaccine protection rates stay high.