Why you should get your child vaccinated

 A STORY BEHIND POLIO VACCINE

Now  before l take you in the reasons of why you should do this, let me tell you a powerful story of a man who is hero to many and why he is a hero until now. 

For more than thousands of years, parents woke up everyday, afraid that one day their child would get this  mystery illness, paralyzed in a matter of days and in worst cases death. That was a matter before it was given a name in 1789  by Dr Michael Underwood. It took 51 years for the mystery illness to be officially recognized. 

However, despite official name, people continued to die and even went on to be an outbreak in 1916 and 1951 which led to more than 2000 deaths and 3000 deaths respectively. Those who survived became disabled, someone needed breathing devices in order to remain alive. By around 1950’s this illness had spread around the whole world and killed and paralyzed more than 500 000 people every year. Without any interventions people would die and that’s where our hero came in, Dr Jonas Salk.

But, prior to that 3 man dedicated their time to culture this “mystery illness” in human body, John Enders, Thomas Weller and Frederick Robbins at Boston Children’s Hospital. 

This mystery illness l’m talking about is Polio. 

After spending time in his laboratory doing experiments , Dr Salk created a killed virus vaccine.  Without wasting any time guess what he did!

He injected himself and then his family in 1953. What an act of courage! A year later he inject 1 600 000 children in Canada, Finland and then USA. 

A year later, his vaccine was licensed and in 1957 yearly cases of people who got the polio dropped from 58 000 people too 5 600 people until they dropped to 161 in 1961.

Dr Salk shared his formula of inactivated polio vaccine and 6 more companies started making this vaccine. 

He understood that elimination  of polio virus would only work if the vaccine was universal and at zero cost. 

Years after, a second vaccine was developed by Dr Albert Sabin which was a live weak form of vaccine which was called oral polio vaccine( OPV). He injected himself and his family again. Trials and tests were carried out on over to more than 10 million children until it was deemed safe and effective. 

Just like every other vaccine, there is a story of people who had to die and have disabilities before its invention.Now, Zimbabwe Immunization Schedule has a total of 22 vaccines in a space of 10 years for boys and 11 years for girls. 

Without vaccination, it poses a great risk not only to your child but to the public. Vaccines protect generations from diseases that are preventable, improved quality of life of the child and even the public. 

While you may decide not to bring your child at hospitals and clinics for vaccination, think about how many people have died before the intervention of that vaccine, think about how many people you’re risking because of your decisions, think about yourself too in this.

It brings in a question in my mind, Should Vaccination be Mandatory? 

Let me know your thoughts.