The most basic benefit of vaccines is as an effort to prevent infectious diseases. This is because vaccines can provide your body with defense and protection from various dangerous infectious diseases.
Vaccines are substances or compounds that function to build immunity. Vaccines can stimulate the body to produce antibodies that can fight germs that cause infection.
Vaccines contain viruses or bacteria, either live or attenuated. Vaccinations can be given in the form of injections, oral drops, or through steam (aerosol).
Benefits of Vaccines for the Body
The following are some of the important benefits of vaccines for the body:
Prevent the spread of disease
Not only does it protect the body from serious illnesses, vaccines can also help prevent the spread of disease.
For example, cases of death in infants and children due to outbreaks of measles and pertussis (whooping cough) once shocked the world. This happened because at that time there was no vaccine for these two diseases.
Protects from the risk of death and disability
Vaccination is proven to reduce a person's risk of developing various diseases that can result in death or disability. For example, giving children the smallpox vaccine can help prevent them from contracting smallpox later in life.
Likewise with the measles and rubella vaccine, which can help reduce the risk of transmitting the virus from pregnant women to fetuses in the womb or to newborns.
Save time and cost
Vaccination is one of the cheapest health investments because it is proven to prevent and reduce morbidity, disability, and death from a disease.
Giving vaccines can help a person avoid various diseases that can cause prolonged illness, which is not only detrimental in terms of finance but also time.
Types of Vaccinations That Are Important for Children
Vaccination is one of the best ways that parents can do to protect their children from various serious diseases that have the potential to harm or even cause death.
Vaccines or immunizations are able to provide protection against certain diseases according to the type of vaccine, including:
- Hepatitis B vaccine to prevent Hepatitis B virus which can attack and damage the liver and cause liver cancer.
- Hepatitis A vaccine to prevent inflammation of the liver due to the hepatitis A virus.
- Polio vaccine to prevent the attack of the polio virus which can cause paralysis.
- BCG vaccine to prevent tuberculosis of the lungs, glands, bones and inflammation of the brain that can cause death or disability.
- DPT vaccine to prevent diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. Diphtheria can cause swelling and blockage of the airways, as well as secrete toxins that can paralyze the heart muscle. Pertussis can cause severe respiratory tract infections, while tetanus germs can secrete toxins that attack the nerves in the muscles, causing the muscles to stiffen.
- Measles vaccine to prevent measles which can cause severe pneumonia (pneumonia), diarrhea, or brain disorders.
- Hib and pneumococcal (PCV) vaccines can prevent severe respiratory infections (pneumonia) and inflammation of the brain (meningitis).
- Influenza vaccine to prevent severe influenza.
- Typhoid vaccine can prevent severe typhoid fever.
- The MR vaccine can prevent morbili (measles) and rubella (German measles).
- Chickenpox (varicella) vaccine to prevent chickenpox.
Vaccine Side Effects
Giving vaccines to children can cause discomfort, such as pain or a rash on the skin at the injection site. In addition, there are also reactions after immunization in the form of mild to high fever, swelling, redness, and the child becomes fussy. Generally, these symptoms will disappear within 3-4 days, although sometimes they last longer.
In this case, you can take simple steps such as giving fever-reducing medicine every 4 hours, warm compresses, giving thin clothes to your little one and avoiding the use of blankets, and giving breast milk more often. If it does not improve or gets worse, contact your doctor immediately for further treatment.
It should be emphasized that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the possible side effects. However, vaccination does not always prevent disease, but can reduce the severity of a disease.