The Importance of Vaccines and Immunization

4 days ago

What is vaccination?

Vaccination is an easy, safe, and effective way to protect yourself from harmful diseases before you’re exposed to them. It uses your body’s natural defenses to increase your protection against certain infections, making your immune system stronger.¹

What are vaccines, and how do they work?

Pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and fungi are everywhere. These harmful organisms can infect the body and cause diseases. Pathogens are made up of various subparts, often unique to each specific pathogen, called antigens.²

When you’re exposed to an antigen for the first time, it takes a while for your immune system to respond by producing antibodies that recognize and destroy that specific antigen. In the meantime, you're vulnerable to becoming ill.²

After your body’s initial response to an antigen, it creates memory cells that stick around even after the pathogen is gone. So, if you come across that same pathogen again, your body will respond much faster and more effectively.²

Vaccines are solutions with weakened, inactive, or parts of an organism (antigen) that trigger your immune system’s response. Sometimes, they include instructions for your body to make the antigen on its own.^2,3

This weakened version won't cause the disease, but it will trigger your immune system to react just like it would if it were facing the real pathogen for the first time.²

Why Immunization is so important?

Immunization saves lives. Throughout history, vaccines have helped keep millions of people protected from the most devastating and deadly diseases.⁴

Vaccines are so effective that many of the diseases we once feared are now either extinct or easily manageable, like smallpox, for example.⁴

Vaccinating people today can help prevent serious diseases like polio and measles from affecting future generations, giving them the chance to grow up healthy.⁴

When you get vaccinated, you're not just looking out for yourself—you’re also protecting your family, friends, and your entire community.⁴

Reasons to get vaccinated

There are countless reasons why you should always keep your vaccination record up to date. Here are a few:⁵

It keeps you healthy – vaccines help protect against many infections, and skipping vaccines makes you vulnerable to illnesses such as flu, HPV, and hepatitis B.

Vaccines are one of the safest ways to prevent diseases – the US has a rigorous process to ensure all approved vaccines are safe and effective. Potential side effects associated with vaccines are uncommon and generally much less severe than the diseases they protect against.

Vaccines cannot cause the disease they are meant to prevent – as we mentioned earlier, vaccines contain weakened or inactivated organisms, making it impossible to contract the disease from the vaccine.

Vaccines help protect everyone – while infants and older adults are at higher risk for serious complications, vaccine-preventable diseases can affect anyone, including young and healthy people.

Vaccination is a cost-effective measure - diseases not only affect individuals and families but also impose a significant financial burden on society. For example, a typical flu illness can last two weeks and result in 5 to 6 missed workdays.

Getting sick puts your family and friends at risk – staying up to date on all recommended vaccines helps protect you, your family, and those in your community who can’t be vaccinated.

Getting vaccinated isn't just about taking care of yourself—it's a responsibility we all share. Talk to your healthcare provider about the vaccines that are recommended for you and your family.

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