Aswe enter National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW), I can’t help butthink how far we’ve come in my lifetime to secure immunizationagainst once insurmountable plagues of disease. We live in a timenow when germs from China or Africa arrive in the US in a matter ofhours. In our grandfathers time, the biggest worry was whatillness was in the next town or county.
In the 1950s, nearly every child developed measles. Unfortunately, some evendied from this disease. My own brother developed mumps in 1957 and was leftsterile as a result. Today, however, few physicians just outof medical school will ever see a case of measles during theircareers. This is due to the wide use of the standardrecommended MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine for children. InMarch 2005, CDC announced that rubella is no longer a major health threat toexpectant mothers and their unborn children, thanks to a safe andeffective MMR vaccine and high vaccinecoverage.
In my youth, it would have been unbelievable to imagine a day when theseinfectious disease would be eradicated. Vaccinations are quite a luxurythat we take for granted today.
I began first grade in 1953 in a rural Virginia village with seven fellowstudents. Jo Ellen was one of those seven. Jo Ellen developed polio the previous year and wasonly able to walk with braces and two crutches. In that time, parentskept young children on their farms because there was no protection available tothem – no vaccine existed. When the first oral polio immunization became availablein 1955, my mother took my three brothers and me to our church for the inoculation. I also remember standing in line in myrural Virginia elementary school for the one or two other immunizations that were available.
In the 2010 California outbreak of whooping cough, 8,000 cases were reportedin the state with ten infant deaths. Additionally, measles takes the lives of more than 100,000 children globally each year. Thanksto immunization, we can now protect infants and children from 14vaccine-preventable diseases before age two. However, they must receive the vaccines to receive that protection!
In September 2010, CDC announced that childhood immunization rates forvaccines routinely recommended for children remain at or near record highs. Perhaps we can find a day when our children can look back inamazement, for the number of diseases that have been eradicated in theirlifetime.
If you have questions or concerns regarding childhood vaccination, pleaserefer to the Talking About Childhood Vaccine brochure, and be sure to consultwith your doctor.
For more information on activities happening around the country incelebration of NIIW, please CDC’s NIWW page.