To Immunize or Not To Immunize - Essay Example

"To Immunize or Not To Immunize" is a wonderful example of a paper on the immune system.
From the information that has been released by the World Health Organization, there is fear that the virus in the avian bird may be capable of jumping into other species and even affecting humans in future. Such cases have occurred in future where virus and disease-causing orgasms have jumped from the animal hosts to human beings. The ability of this particular virus to affect and kill birds in only 24 to 48 hours clearly shows that this virus is very lethal and it may have the same impact on human being judging from experimental results and the previous experiences. If the virus jumps from species and to humans, the effect may be a very lethal and devastating epidemic. Therefore, there is the need to prevent this anticipated lethal epidemic in the United States of America by ensuring that all the American citizens receive the vaccination that has been developed to fight the virus.

Vaccination is among the greatest achievements in the medical fraternity. This vital practice has ensured that millions of citizens and world populations are protected from the effects of devastating illnesses and diseases like Polio and measles (CDC, 2014). Prior to vaccines being used to prevent devastating diseases, numerous infectious diseases claimed the lives of millions of adults and children. Before the year 1984, type b Hemophilus Influenza resulted in infections among 25000 children in the US. During this time, Meningitis and Pneumonia also resulted in millions of deaths. In Germany, the 1963-1966 period remains one of the lowest moments due to the 13 million cases of Rubella in the country (Plotkin, Orenstein & Offit, 2012). Out of the 30, 000 children who were born with this condition, 12000 were deaf while about 6000 were deaf. This was an epidemic that caused the loss of several lives in Germany. In the year 1954 alone, Polio was reported to have paralyzed about 25000 people in the United States of America (Smith, 2013). These are just some of the devastating diseases which have resulted in millions of deaths in the world. Things, however, changed after there was an increase in the levels of immunization in the various States. Most of these diseases have declined to near zero points and this is an indicator of how effective vaccines are.

Vaccines have proved to be effective in helping prevent and control various diseases including the viral diseases. Due to the high effectiveness rate, it is vital that each and every American is given the vaccine for the virus so that the country can prevent a lethal epidemic that may occur in future. The vaccines are not constantly ideally effective. However, the success story is very encouraging. Polio vaccine is known to prevent 99 per cent of cases while measles vaccine has 98 per cent success chances (NNII, 2013). Owing to the chance of success of vaccines, the majority of the population will be protected should the virus jump to humans. Only those who have not received the vaccines will be highly likely to be affected by the foreseen lethal epidemic.