The importance of immunisation in childhood

World Immunisation Week, 24 - 30 April 2021

Better to prevent than to cure

It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccination has led to the effective prevention of many diseases that were previously very common and, in many cases, fatal. Some examples of diseases that have been reduced thanks to childhood vaccination are:

• Polio
• The measles
• The diphtheria
• The whooping cough
• The red
• The mumps
• The quarter
• The rotavirus
• Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
• The smallpox

In fact, thanks to the immunisation process, smallpox no longer exists outside the laboratory. In the same way, and over the years, vaccines have prevented countless cases of disease while saving millions of lives.

Protection from infectious diseases

Immunisation is one of the best ways to protect yourself, your children and future generations from infectious diseases. Vaccination helps to eliminate a disease that could spread, but also helps to protect your own people from the possibility of an epidemic or pandemic. Full childhood vaccination, based on the National Immunization Program, helps protect not only your own people, but also those in vulnerable groups.

Immunisation saves lives

In the 20th century, not far from today, thousands of children became seriously ill and died every year from diseases such as whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria. Fortunately, and thanks to vaccination, it is extremely rare today for a child to become so severely ill from the diseases mentioned, as long as he or she has been vaccinated. 

What is immunity?

The group of organs that make up the immune system create antibodies to fight the antigens of "foreign invaders" such as bacteria and viruses.

So, the first time a child is infected with a particular antigen of a pathogen, the immune system produces antibodies designed to fight it. 

First contact with the foreign antigen

But this takes time. Sometimes, the immune system cannot work fast enough to prevent the antigen from causing illness, so the child still gets sick. 

Second contact with the foreign antigen

However, the immune system "remembers" this antigen. If it ever enters the body again, even after many years, the immune system can produce antibodies quickly enough to prevent it from causing disease a second time. This protection is called immunity.

How most vaccines work

Most vaccines contain the same antigens or parts of them that cause a particular disease. However, their potency is so weakened that the person receiving the vaccine does not get sick, but produces antibodies, leading directly to immunity. Through vaccination, children can develop immunity, bypassing the course of the disease and the risk that each disease poses to the child's health.  

Other benefits of vaccination

Vaccination does not only benefit those who are vaccinated. Vulnerable groups who cannot acquire immunity because of other acquired or autoimmune diseases or simply because they do not respond to a particular vaccine are protected through the immunisation of individual children. Mass immunisation of the population also helps to eliminate diseases for future generations.