Immunisations – Stopping Disease Outbreaks

As parents, we never want to see our children sick, no matter how minor the illness may be. Imagine being able to protect your children from some of the most deadly diseases in the world? According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinations play a major role in the prevention of disease, ensuring that your child lives a safe, happy and healthy childhood.

Polio once affected 20,000 Americans every year in the 1950s. However, since the introduction of the polio vaccine, there have been no reports of polio. Diphtheria, one of the most dreaded childhood diseases up through the 1920s, killed over 10,000 people every year. After vaccination started in the 1930s’ and 40s’, the disease started disappearing until today. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that up to 552,000 diarrhoeal diseases can be prevented through vaccinations, rotavirus gastroenteritis (338,000) and pneumococcal disease (841,000). Smallpox is now completely eradicated, thanks to vaccination worldwide.

Reducing Childhood Risk

The Government of Malaysia introduced the National Immunisation Programme in the early 1950s and the Expanded Programme for Immunisation in 1989. Cases of vaccine preventable diseases have dropped significantly since the introduction of the programme. From 1979 to 2007, reported diphtheria cases have reduced from 250 to 2, tetanus from 76 to 14 cases, measles from 5,463 to 1,206 cases and polio from 39 cases to zero. To ensure the continued success of the National Immunisation Programme, it is important that parents take the appropriate steps of following through with the schedule accordingly.

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These are just some of the diseases in which you can protect your child from through vaccinations. The key to public health is disease prevention as it is always better to prevent a disease, rather than treat it. Vaccines not only help to prevent diseases, they are also responsible for the control of many infectious diseases once common in the world.

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