Immunization: Protect your child, your family and your community
Myth: It is better to get the disease than to be immunized
Fact: No
Immunity after most vaccines is just as effective as that obtained from disease, without the risk of damage and death from the disease.
Some vaccines need several doses to create immunity
The price paid for a vaccination is the inconvenience of several shots and the occasional sore arm
The price paid for a single natural infection is usually exceptionally greater:
o Paralysis from natural polio infection
o Mental retardation from natural Hib infection
o Liver failure from natural hepatitis B virus infection
o Deafness from natural mumps infection
o Pneumonia from natural varicella infection
These are very high prices to pay for immunity!
Adapted from the Immunization Action Coalition/Vaccines: What Every Parent Should Know, by Paul A.
Offit & Louis M. Bell
PAPHR is celebrating Immunization Week for the whole month of April. Immunize your child under age 5 in April 2011 and enter a draw for some fabulous prizes.
For more information, immunization clinics, clinic schedules and further resources, check www.princealbertparklandhealth.com Select Public Health and choose your
option.
