Assignment 3 A Problem Exists Essay

Assignment 3 A Problem Exists Essay Assignment 3 A Problem Exists Essay A Problem Exists: Without Childhood Vaccinations Should Children Be Banned From Public Schools English 215 Childhood Vaccinations Any child who has not had their vaccinations should be banned from starting public school. Beginning school should just not be an option. Other families that have their children vaccinated should not have to worry about their children and the possibilities of them catching and/or carrying germs and diseases home, putting their siblings and families in jeopardy. Immunizations are required for a reason and that is to prevent childhood diseases. Many parents are against vaccinations for various reasons. The reasons range from the pharmaceutical companies benefiting from the vaccine more than the children, vaccines being underestimated and overestimating the adverse reactions to the diseases, religious reasons, and faulting autism because of the vaccines. I understand their concern for their child but they should also be concerned with other children and their families. The first formal vaccine developed for the prevention of disease was used by Edward Jenner for smallpox. Jenner first became aware of the protective effects of cowpox from the story of a local dairymaid who had been exposed to the disease. After years of study and observation, he became convinced of the story's validity. In 1796, he immunized an eight-year-old boy with material from a cowpox lesion. No ill effects were seen. Further immunizations supported the theory that cowpox protected against smallpox. Jenner called this material variolae vaccinae. Richard Dunning, a Plymouth physician, in an 1800 analysis of the procedure, was the first to use the term "vaccination." Since the first use of the vaccination by Jenner was for the smallpox, immunization techniques have developed for the protection against most infectious diseases and illnesses. With the nineteenth century improvements in public health measures, combined with the passage of laws for compulsory vaccination, resulted in a steady decrease in the number of smallpox cases in the United States an d most countries of Europe. Even as late as 1930, however, approximately 49,000 cases were reported in the United States. In the 1950's, large numbers of cases were still being reported in areas of Africa and Asia. At that time, the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations decided on a plan for the elimination of smallpox based on the fact that humans served as the sole reservoir for the smallpox virus. In 1978 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the world was free of smallpox. However, the principle of immunization in prevention did not originate with Edward Jenner, the English physician credited with development of the smallpox vaccine in the 1790's. A practice called variolation was well known in China and parts of the Middle East for centuries prior to Jenner. Variolation consisted of the inhalation of dried crust prepared from the pocks obtained from individuals suffering from mild cases of smallpox. A variation involved removing small amounts of flu id from an active smallpox pustule and scratching the liquid into the skin of children. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, introduced the practice of variolation into Great Britain during the early eighteenth century. Use of variolation was empirical: The practice was often successful. The possibility remained, however, that immunization might actually introduce the disease (Magill's Medical Guide, 2008). Community immunity is an important concept in immunization science and policy. Unimmunized persons are protected- indirectly- against some infectious diseases by being surrounded by immunized persons. This is known as community (or â€Å"herd†) immunity. (W.B. Saunders Company, 2004). Unvaccinated children are not only at greater risk of catching vaccine-preventable diseases but they can affect