Vaccinations

By Tim Taylor

Popular misconceptions

Benefits and risks

Download this episodeWhen you go to get your child vaccinated, be sure to review the information sheets that explain both the benefits and risks of a vaccine. Health practitioners are required by law to provide them. Talk to your doctor about the benefits and risks of vaccines, along with the potential consequences of not vaccinating against certain diseases. Some parents are surprised to learn that children can die of measles, chicken pox, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. If your child or a sibling has had an allergic reaction or other severe reaction to a dose of vaccine, talk with your health care provider about whether that vaccine should be taken again. And ask about conditions under which your child should not be vaccinated. This might include being sick or having a history of certain allergic or other adverse reactions to previous vaccinations or their components. For example, eggs are used to grow flu vaccines, so a child who is allergic to eggs should not get a flu vaccine.

The body “remembers”

Download this episodeVaccines take advantage of your body’s natural ability to learn how to combat many disease-causing germs, or microbes, that attack it. What’s more, your body “remembers” how to protect itself from the microbes it has encountered before. On average, the human body’s immune system takes more than a week to learn how to fight off an unfamiliar microbe. But sometimes that isn’t soon enough. Stronger microbes can spread through your body faster than the immune system can fend them off. Your body often gains the upper hand after a few weeks, but in the meantime, you are suffering. Traditional vaccines contain either parts of microbes or whole microbes that have been killed or weakened so that they don’t cause disease. When your immune system confronts these harmless versions of the germs, it quickly clears them from your body. In other words, vaccines trick your immune system to teach your body important lessons about how to defeat its opponents.

Cheaper than treatment

Download this episodeOnce, the only way to become immune to a disease was to get it and luckily survive it. This is what is known as naturally acquired immunity. Vaccines, which provide artificially acquired immunity, are a less risky way to become immune. Vaccines can prevent a disease from occurring, rather than attempt to cure it after the fact. It is also cheaper to prevent a disease than to treat it. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases estimates that for every dollar spent on the MMR vaccine, $21 are saved. Vaccines protect not only yourself but also others around you. If your vaccine-primed immune system stops an illness before it starts, you will be contagious for a much shorter period of time, or perhaps not at all. Similarly, when other people are vaccinated, they are less likely to give the disease to you. Vaccines protect not only individuals but entire communities. That is why vaccines are vital to the public health goal of preventing diseases.

May need another dose

Download this episodeMaking sure that children at every age receive all of their vaccinations on time is one of the most important things parents can do to ensure their children’s long-term health, as well as the health of their friends and classmates. As children get a little older, it’s easy to forget that they still need vaccines. However, children 6 months through 18 years of age are recommended for a yearly flu vaccination, so young children, pre-teens, and teens should be getting at least one vaccination every year. As children move into adolescence, they are at greater risk of catching diseases like meningitis and HPV. Also, immunity from some vaccines can decrease over time, so people may need to get another dose of a vaccine during their pre-teen years. For example, adolescents between the ages of 11 to 12 are recommended to get a single dose booster of the Tdap vaccine. This is a version of the DTaP which is a five-dose series given to children before 6 years of age.Trusted by thousands of listeners every week, T. Glenn Pait, M.D., began offering expert advice as the host of UAMS’ “Here’s to Your Health” program in 1996. Dr. Pait began working at UAMS in 1994 and has been practicing medicine for over 20 years.