The public health topic I chose to study this week is immunization.
This topic is meaningful to me because as a child and even as an adult I never
had to think about whether there was supplies available for me in order to get
the latest immunization allowing me to grow up without any complications. In
developing countries, prior to the “expanded program on immunization” the
children in developing countries were not as fortunate as me (Chan, 2014). The purpose of this program was to deliver
multiple vaccines to multiple children through a schedule (Chan, 2014). This
was a challenging process because of where these children are located, there are
many difficulties like a financial burden of who is paying for these
immunizations. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) as well as The World Health
Organization are pushing for more vaccines in the developing countries. Still
with all of this support, 6.6 million children still die each year. About half
of that number could have been prevented by vaccination (Greenwood, 2014).
This information may impact my future work because the population
in the United States is becoming very diverse. Due to this diversity, children
from other countries may be coming to the United States, and these children may
not have received immunizations. This
could impact other children within the community by potentially spreading
disease. In addition to this, there is the possibility that I could have a
child from another county in my classroom who may have a complication from a
prior illness that could have been prevented if that child was immunized.
References
Chan. M. (2014) The
Contribution of Immunization: Saving Millions of Lives, and More. Public Health Reports, 129 (Suppl 3).
7-8
Greenwood. B. (2014). The
contribution of vaccination to global health: past, present and future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society B: http:// doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0433
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteImmunizations is an interesting topic to research. I find it interesting because, like you mentioned, there are children who are dieing around the world from lack of vaccinations. However, we have families in the United States opting out of immunizations by choice. The US is fortunate to lack most deadly diseases because of easier access to immunizations for children. I fear that if the trend of anti-vaccines continue we will see children contracting illnesses that are preventable within our own country. As Berger stated, research is already seeing trends of illness increasing in Colorado, a state who has a high rate of families refusing immunizations (Berger, 2016). As educators, we will definitely see the effects of this trend if it continues. Thanks for sharing!
-Crystal
Reference
Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteYou brought up some great points in your blog regarding how immunizations can impact your future work. I too chose immunizations but thought of advocacy instead. I enjoyed reading your post- it was very straight forward and to the point.
Amy
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteYour post and choice was interesting to me, especially with so many people in the United States starting this "No immunizations" fad. I cannot fathom that half of those children could be alive but are not simply because they did not have the resources for a vaccination. It is heart wrenching. I am also worried about children contracting and infecting others who are too young or too old to have the vaccinations. Thank you for your insights.
-Allison Giles
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteLike our peers have stated; Here we are, living in the United States and taking so much for granted. While we argue and oppose vaccinations, there are numerous children dying from disease that have been eradicated in other countries. Sadly, it is a topic that we will be fighting for many years to come. Being the age of online information, there is so much out there that is not factual or research base, and this is the information that is repeated the loudest.
Thank you for your post this week!
Natasha