Whooping Cough New Recommendations - Essay Example

"Whooping Cough New Recommendations" is a wonderful example of a paper on the respiratory system. Incidences of vaccine-preventable diseases have been on the increase. Lack of awareness about vaccines' effectiveness is the leading cause of the upsurge. Adults also are partly to blame since they assume that these diseases can only affect the children. Public education needs to be conducted on the importance of vaccinations and how those affected can be managed. Vaccines provide the most effective form of management of vaccine-preventable diseases. However, the steady growth of incidences of children and adults getting infected is a worrying trend. Pertussis (whooping cough) is one of the preventable diseases that has adversely affected the public. In recent years, Pertussis recorded an increment in the number of incidents among vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, Pertussis can no longer be regarded as a childhood disease as previously thought. This is because the disease is highly contagious and individuals previously vaccinated can contract the disease. This paper stipulates the recommendations that can be applied to Pertussis ailment.

Introduction

Pertussis can lead to high mortalities in both children and adults. Almost ninety percent of exposed individuals contract the disease. The recent sharp increase in the incidents of those infected is due to a decrease in the efficacy of the vaccine. Vaccines can only be active for three years after immunization. This means there is the continued circulation of the organism causing the disease even among the immunized populations. Therefore, anybody can contract the disease once exposed to infected persons (Miller, Barrett & Henderson, 2006).

In order to avoid the adverse effects of the disease and its complications, immunization strategies need to be strengthened. The public should be conversant with the importance of immunization exercise on their health. The public should be made aware of vaccination of children is mandatory. In addition, the public has to be informed that children are to undertake all vaccination schedules to prevent them from infection. On the other hand, adults should also be encouraged to undertake the booster doses since the vaccine is only active for three years. Expectant mothers are vulnerable to infection hence they should be vaccinated (Edwards & Decker, 2004).

In conclusion, the public should promptly report suspected cases of Pertussis infections. Consultations need to take place with the relevant public health authorities so that preventive measures are put into place as confirmation of the diagnosis is awaited. The confirmed cases ought to be treated to prevent the mortalities and complications resulting from the infection. It is also necessary to drop the charges for the respective vaccines by the public health departments for this will promote the participation of more people in the vaccination exercise. These will generate a positive result of the reduction of the incidences of those people contracting the disease.

 

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