Parents certainly want their children to always be healthy and protected. One common effort that can be done is by providing immunization. Immunization in children is a preventive measure to form a child's immune system, especially to protect him from various dangerous infectious diseases.
Immunization has been proven successful in reducing child morbidity, disability or death. However, there are parents out there who still feel hesitant and even reluctant to immunize their children. If you are one of these parents and need further explanation about how important immunization is for children, read this article in full.
Types of Mandatory Immunizations for Children
Before discussing the benefits, it is important to know what immunizations must be given to children. This mandatory immunization is a government program in the form of a vaccine and can be given free of charge. The following are several types of vaccines that must be given to children:
- Hepatitis B immunization, to prevent hepatitis B disease.
- Polio immunization, to prevent children from contracting polio virus infection.
- BCG immunization, to protect the body from germs that cause tuberculosis (TB).
- Measles Rubella (MR) immunization, to prevent infection with the virus that causes measles and rubella infectious diseases.
- DPT-HB-HiB immunization, to prevent polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, meningitis and pneumonia.
There are also additional immunizations that need to be given to children, such as MMR, PCV, rotavirus, hepatitis A, typhoid, varicella, influenza, HPV, Japanese encephalitis and dengue vaccines. However, this immunization costs money.
Why is Immunization in Children Important?
Mandatory immunization in children has various important functions that contribute to individual and community health. The following are some of the main functions of mandatory immunization in children:
1. Prevent Dangerous Infectious Diseases
Immunization can protect children from various serious and potentially fatal infectious diseases, such as measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, hepatitis B, and others. If a child is not immunized and contracts the disease, serious complications such as permanent disability and death may occur.
2. Protecting the Community Through Herd Immunity
Immunization can help create herd immunity, a condition where the spread of disease in the community can be minimized because most of the population has been vaccinated. This condition is very important to protect people who cannot be vaccinated, such as babies who are too young or individuals with certain medical conditions.
3. Reduce Economic and Social Burden
Vaccine-preventable diseases often require expensive and long-term medical treatment. Therefore, immunization can reduce health care costs and reduce productivity loss due to disease, both at the family level and in the wider community.
4. Strengthens the child's immune system
Vaccination can help strengthen a child's immune system by teaching it to recognize and fight certain pathogens, so that children become stronger and better prepared to face future infections.
5. Avoid epidemics and outbreaks
A broad and effective immunization program can prevent infectious disease outbreaks. By ensuring that the majority of the child population is vaccinated, the risk of epidemics can be reduced, so that the wider community can be protected from the spread of the disease.
6. Fulfill Legal and Ethical Obligations
In many countries, mandatory immunization is regulated by law as part of government efforts to protect public health. Apart from that, immunization is also the ethical responsibility of parents to protect their children and other people around them from preventable diseases.
7. Reduce Morbidity and Mortality
Immunization has significantly succeeded in reducing morbidity and mortality caused by infectious diseases. With vaccination, many diseases that previously caused massive death or disability can now be controlled or even eradicated.
8. Prevents long-term effects of disease
Some vaccine-preventable diseases can cause detrimental long-term effects, such as brain damage from measles or birth defects from rubella. Vaccination helps prevent these long-term complications.
9. Protecting Future Generations
By providing effective immunizations to children, future generations can be protected from infectious diseases that currently still exist. Successful immunization programs not only protect today's children, but also contribute to the health of the next generation.
From the many benefits of immunization that have been explained, it is known that mandatory immunization for children has a very vital role in maintaining the child's health. Immunization is also a safe health procedure and can prevent the spread of disease in society as a whole. Therefore, let's protect children and the surrounding community from various infectious diseases by not hesitating to provide child immunizations according to the recommended schedule.
Article written by dr. Sri Hastuti Andayani, Sp.A (Pediatrician, EMC Pulomas Hospital).