What Do We Vaccinate Against

How Have We Been Tracking

We have met our aspirational target for five year olds and are close to meeting our aspirational target of 95% for all age groups, with more than 94.8% coverage for one year olds and more than 92.6% for two year olds.

Our successes so far:

• We have achieved 95.18% coverage for all five year olds.
• We have achieved 97.12% coverage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander five year olds.
• Coverage rates for one year olds are at 94.85%.

For detailed data, take a look at:

Why Dont We Have Vaccines Against Everything

Money is just the obvious obstacle. A few diseases, like H.I.V., so far have outwitted both the immune system and scientists.

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Vaccines are among the most ingenious of inventions, and among the most maddening.

Some global killers, like smallpox and polio, have been totally or nearly eradicated by products made with methods dating back to Louis Pasteur. Others, like malaria and H.I.V., utterly frustrate scientists to this day, despite astonishing new weapons like gene-editing.

We have a vaccine for Ebola that protects nearly 100 percent of its recipients, but we are lucky to get a routine flu shot that works half that well.

We have childrens vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, chickenpox, polio, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, pneumococcus, haemophilus influenzae and meningococcal disease.

They have changed our expectations of mortality and of parenthood. In 17th century England, one-third of all children died before age 15. Today, thanks largely to those vaccines, less than 1 percent of English children do.

There is no universal flu vaccine. There are no vaccines with long-lasting protection against malaria or tuberculosis.

None for some that already have, including Lyme, West Nile, Zika and hepatitis C.

Cases Still High Among Children

National data shows new infections peaked in children in early September and have been declining since. According to the most recent American Academy of Pediatrics report, 118,000 cases in kids were added the week of Oct. 14, which remains an extremely high number of newly diagnosed children. Over 1 million pediatric cases have been added over the past six weeks and one-quarter of recent infections have been in children.

While national numbers are trending downward, some states, including Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota, are just now in the midst of a fall peak. Community transmission also remains high in all 50 states.

Although numbers are going down in many areas and were happy to see that Covid is not going away. Its more likely to go on to be one of the viruses that continues to circulate, like the flu, said Dr. Anna Sick-Samuels, an assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She added that the number of children hospitalized is generally proportional to the number of cases in the community.

At Tuesdays meeting, several committee members emphasized the outsize risks associated with the illness compared to other infectious diseases, highlighting the need for widespread vaccination among kids.

Almost 2,670 kids ages 5 to 17 have been hospitalized due to Covid, according to the CDC, and as of May, Covid is the eighth leading cause of death for kids ages 5 to 11.

Creech echoed that.

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Is Is Better For My Child To Get The Disease Naturally

No. The only way to get the disease naturally would be through infection with the bacteria or virus that causes the disease. This would pose a serious risk to your childs health, potentially making them very ill and causing long-term effects. Some diseases, such as measles and meningitis, can also be fatal. Natural infection also enables the disease to spread from your child to those around them, increasing the risk of others getting ill. Vaccination allows your child to build up immunity in a safe and controlled environment without becoming ill with the disease and passing it to others.

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Many Queensland adults remember getting chickenpox as kids. For most, the effects of the virus werent so bad: a few days of an itchy rash, temperature, runny nose and headache, before everything cleared up and childhood continued as normal. But for some, chickenpox can be a dangerous, even deadly, disease. Read on to find out what chickenpox is and the important reasons we vaccinate against it.

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How Effective Is Vaccination

Vaccination is extremely effective with most childhood vaccines effective in 85% to 95% of children who receive them.1 It is considered one of our greatest global health achievements and is estimated to save 23 million lives a year.2 Thanks to vaccines, life-threatening diseases that used to be common in young children in the UK, such as diphtheria, whooping cough and polio, are now relatively rare. Looking at the history of vaccine-preventable disease, there is a huge drop in the number of cases of a disease following the introduction of a vaccine against it. If smallpox had not been eradicated, it would cause 5 million deaths worldwide a year!3 Through vaccination, some diseases have even been eradicated completely, for example smallpox.

How Does Vaccination Work

The measles vaccine contains a weakened version of the measles virus. After vaccination, the immune system makes the antibodies and memory cells needed to provide long-term protection against measles infection. Then, if the body comes into contact with the real virus, the immune system is better prepared to respond. This either stops the disease from developing or reduces the severity of the disease and the risk of serious complications.

The best way to prevent measles infection is vaccination. The measles vaccine prevents almost all cases of severe disease. The vaccine is very safe adverse events following measles vaccine are generally mild and may include local swelling, redness or pain at the injection site or fever. Some people may develop a rash, which is not infectious. Serious adverse events are very rare.

In some instances, people arent able to be vaccinated. They might have a suppressed immune system, which means vaccination could cause dangerous side effects. Some people can be allergic to the ingredients in vaccines. If you have concerns about your children being allergic to vaccines, you should talk to your GP and they can advise you how to best proceed.

People who are unable to receive vaccines rely on the rest of the community to be vaccinated, so that the virus is less likely to spread to them.

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Were In A Race Against Time To Get More People Vaccinated: Gauteng Health

The Gauteng Health Department says it is in a race against time as it seeks to get millions more vaccinated ahead of the onset of the COVID-19 fourth wave.

The department says its aim is to vaccinate 500 000 people by the end of Sunday during the second leg of the Vooma Vaccination Campaign Weekend which started on Friday.

The first leg was at the start of October.

Health MEC Dr. Nomathemba Mokgethi says she is satisfied that many people, particularly the youth are responding to governments campaign to get vaccinated, with over 3.2 million already vaccinated in the province.

Mokgethi says, What I have just seen is that the mobilisation was quite good because as you can see a lot came out to vaccinate and theyre very happy. I think now the messages have gone through to them.

Now they know that the vaccination is safe. So we are also teaching them about the side effects and what to do when experiencing side effects. If they persist for more than three days at the back of our card theres a number and they have to call that number.

Children

Mokgethi has urged parents to allow their children who are aged 12 to 17 to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

This comes as the African Christian Democratic Party and various civil society movements approach the High Court in Pretoria to challenge the vaccination of children.

She says their observation is that most parents are willing to have their children vaccinated.

Active Vs Passive Immunity

Antibodies help the body recognize antigens of diseases. Protection from antibodies can be achieved in two different ways.

Active immunization is the immunity your body achieves when its triggered to produce its own antibodies against antigens of a disease youre exposed to. It stimulates long-term protection against a disease. Active immunity can occur after an infection . It can also occur through vaccination .

Passive immunization provides short-term protection against a disease. It occurs when someone receives antibodies instead of making their own. Passive immunity is transmitted naturally from mother to child during birth and breastfeeding. It can also be achieved artificially through the injection of immune globulins. These are antibody-containing blood products.

In recent years, vaccine opponents have challenged their safety and effectiveness. However, their arguments have generally been flawed. Vaccination generally is a very safe way to prevent disease.

Theres no good evidence that vaccination can cause autism. However, theres a lot of evidence that vaccines can prevent serious disease and death.

Not all people avoid vaccinations because of safety concerns. Some simply dont know that they should be vaccinated. For example, people should get the flu vaccine every winter.

Vaccines can reduce disease. For example, vaccination helped to eliminate polio from the Western hemisphere.

Vaccination has also reduced the number of measles infections by more than

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Once You Are Fully Vaccinated You Can Start Doing More

• After you are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, you can resume many activities that you did before the pandemic.
• CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people wear a mask in public indoor settings if they are in an area of substantial or high transmission.
• Fully vaccinated people might choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease, or if someone in their household is unvaccinated. People who are at increased risk for severe disease include older adults and those who have certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, overweight or obesity, and heart conditions.

Still Dreading That Shot

We usually think of vaccines as shots, but not all vaccines are given that way. Some are given orally or in other forms like nasal sprays.

But it’s impossible to escape the fact that some immunizations are just best given as shots. And it’s completely normal to feel nervous about them. If you’re one of the many people who dread shots, you can try a few techniques to make shots easier, like taking calming breaths and even coughing as the needle goes in.

The good news is that the shot itself only lasts for a second, but you’ll be protected for a long, long time after that!

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What Are The Symptoms Of Rubella

In children, rubella usually causes the following symptoms that last 2 or 3 days:

• Rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body
• Low fever

Before the rash appears, older children and adults may also have:

• Swollen glands
• Cough, runny nose, and redness or swelling of the white of the eye
• Aching joints

About half of the people who get rubella do not have symptoms.

Why You Should Vaccinate Your Kids Against Covid

Its time for my healthy nine-year-old son to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In fact, its time for every kid aged five to eleven to get vaccinated.

An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration has reviewed the data from clinical trials assessing the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children five to eleven years old. The experts voted unanimously to recommend authorization for this vaccine in children in that age range. As a next step, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will decide whether all kids should have access to the vaccine, or only some. Some experts have proposed use in high-risk children only while we accumulate additional data.

Waiting to vaccinate all children would be a mistake. Based on the data we have, the right answer is clear: the CDC should recommend that all kids ages five to eleven should have be vaccinated as quickly as possible.

There is one thing all experts agree on: Vaccinating children should be based on rigorous evidence and we should set a particularly high bar for using vaccines in healthy children.

Like all vaccines, COVID vaccines can have the standard side-effects of a sore arm, fever or headaches, but these side-effects are mild and short-lived. There are also important concerns about one specific side effect that is crucial to recognize and fully understand: myocarditisor an inflammation of the heart muscle.

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Why Should My Baby Get The Hepatitis B Shot

• Protects your child from against hepatitis B, a potentially serious disease.
• Protects other people from the disease because children with hepatitis B usually dont have symptoms, but they may pass the disease to others without anyone knowing they were infected.
• Prevents your child from developing liver disease and cancer from hepatitis B.
• Keeps your child from missing school or child care and you from missing work.

Advisory Committee Recommends Fda Approval Of Pfizer Covid Vaccine For Kids Ages 5

But experts say that vaccinating children is an important step in helping them get back to normal. Still, many acknowledge that the decision for parents may be difficult, given the newness of the vaccine, as well as the illnesss less severe impacts on children compared to older people.

We know its milder, we know navigate it better than certainly older adults, Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told NBC News senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres on Thursday. But we also recognize that theres a burden of infection in children. And now weve got a tool to prevent it.

Last week, Pfizer-BioNTech reported that their vaccine was 91 percent effective against symptomatic illness in children ages 5 to11.

We know the disease is a problem, almost 2 million kids have been infected … You know who the villain is, so the question is whether the vaccine is the good guy, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDAs advisory committee.

Hes confident that the answer to that question is yes.

Offit was among the 17 members of the advisory committee who voted in favor of authorizing Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine, as was Dr. Amanda Cohn, a chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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If We Didnt Have Vaccines Would Clean Water And Modern Hygiene Prevent These Diseases Anyway

No. Clean water and good personal, home, and public hygiene help slow down or stop some germs from spreading, but they dont get rid of diseases. Some diseases especially respiratory diseases that spread through the air, like measles are more difficult to prevent.

The bottom line is that as long as diseases are around, people will continue to get sick. And thats why its so important to get vaccinated. Learn more about getting vaccinated.

Are You Planning A Pregnancy

Even before becoming pregnant, make sure you are up to date on all your vaccines. If you arent up to date, youll need the MMR vaccine before you get pregnant.

Infection during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, or birth defects like deafness, blindness, intellectual disability, heart defects, and liver or spleen damage.

If you are not up to date on MMR vaccine, but you are already pregnant, consult your healthcare provider about ways to reduce your risk of exposure to rubella.

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What Should I Do If Im Not Vaccinated Or My Children Arent Vaccinated

Talk to your GP or immunisation provider as soon as possible about how to proceed with vaccinations. You dont need to receive the vaccine if youve already had chickenpox, but it wont harm you if you do get the vaccine.

The National Immunisation Program Schedule provides a combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine free of charge to all children aged 18 months. Children who have previously had chickenpox can, and should, still receive MMRV vaccine.

Vaccination is also recommended for non-immune people in the following groups:

• non-immune adolescents over 14 years of age and adults
• high-risk occupations where exposure to chickenpox is likely
• women planning a pregnancy
• women immediately after delivery of a baby
• parents of young children
• and household contacts of people with suppressed immune systems.

What Is In Vaccines

Depending on the infection, ingredients in vaccines can vary. They may also change from year to year as new strains of viruses appear. Some vaccines may contain a small dose of:

• A live germ.
• Dead germs.
• Small parts of germs .
• Inactivated toxins produced by bacteria.
• Antibiotics or preservatives to stop the vaccine from becoming contaminated or going off.
• Diluents .

Alternatively mRNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a protein that stimulates an immune response.

Australia has strict rules on vaccine safety. Before a vaccine is registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and made available to the public it goes through rigorous testing. And, even when it is used, it is constantly monitored for safety and effectiveness.

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