School takes up a quite a bit of time, and one of the things that we keep learning about are the importance of vaccines. So, I thought I would share. They help prevent infections, and complications of infections. For example, the chickenpox vaccine is now given in order to help prevent shingles later in life and other complications of chickenpox. The whooping cough vaccine (as part of dTP) is given to adults to prevent whooping cough in infants -- which is potentially fatal or could require prolonged hospitalization. So vaccines are important (including the old ones)! :) Additionally, as long as people keep getting vaccinated -- hopefully we can prevent some of the "old" diseases from making a come back (ex. polio, measles, etc.). Unfortunately, some of these diseases (ex. measles, polio) may now be on the rise because of decreased immunization rates.
This past week, I was introduced to this song (The vaccine song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1xw0Ob5bqs which I found funny/cute. Hope you enjoy!
3 comments:
I did not know the chicken pox shot prevents shingles later in life!
Annu
Hi Annu,
Yeah, shingles is caused by reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox. So, if you never were infected with chicken pox to begin with -- you can never get shingles! :)
Heidi
Good PSA, Doctor! There's been so much "anti-vaccine" craze lately... ;) that's all I'm gonna say.
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