Childhood Vaccination Memo

Childhood Vaccination Memo

INTERNAL MEMO

CHILDHOOD VACCINATION

FROM            :

TO                  :

DATE             :

Nature of the Problem

The problem at hand is on childhood immunization. Immunization is one of the ways through which children and adults are protected from any infectious disease. The significance of vaccination is based on the fact that once people get immunized, they will not suffer the threat of facing the disease they are vaccinated against in their lifetime. As a result, therefore, the quality of life of the children is protected. More to this is that the effect of some of these diseases is reduced to almost none because some of the infectious diseases that can easily be spread from one patient to another end up being prevented. In other words, the immunization of one person may end up saving a thousand others from the effects of the same disease. In the economic aspect, vaccination is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that the cost of healthcare is effectively managed. With immunization, the number of health ailments among the population is limited, and as a result, therefore, there will be fewer financial resources used for the purpose of managing these diseases. People get sick less often, and there will be no need for incurring the cost of getting to quarantine people because of a preventable disease outbreak. More to this is that money will be saved with no obligation to provide treatment towards preventable diseases and even paying for this treatment. Therefore, vaccination is going to be the sole way of ensuring that there is a save in financial resources not only among households but also by the government.

Childhood vaccination is one of the most common forms of immunization. It is offered to children because they have a low immunity that makes them vulnerable to many different types of diseases (Kaufman et al., 2018). Offering them vaccination because essential because it ensures that they are protected from any form of the disease that can affect them. There are a total of six shots that children have to undertake as a means of ensuring that they are immunized from the significant known forms of communicable diseases. Therefore, immunization has been viewed as one of the most ensured ways of ensuring that children grow into being healthy since it ensures that they are protected from any form of diseases that can be prevented.

It should be noted, however, that children are minors and the decision for them to either be immunized or not relies on the readiness by the parents. The parents make decisions for their children, and in as much as it is expected that children get immunized after they are born, there is the concern that not all are not immunized. There are those that fail to get vaccinated because the parents chose not to while some fail because the parents are not in a position to do so. In all these instances, there is the fear that the purpose of immunization fails, and this is an injury to the entire healthcare system. Children will end up becoming sick, fears of infections will become high while households, and the government will be faced with the daunting task of ensuring paying for the treatment of these affected individuals.

With a childhood immunization crisis being experienced in the current state of the US household, the country is looking at an inevitable danger in the future. The immunization rates are becoming lower and lower, and this presents a significant scare in the American Healthcare system. More to this is that the quality of life of some of the children that will fail to get the needed shots will be lowered, with some not being able to perform some of the essential functions. As a result, therefore, it becomes crucial that both the government and household seek ways of ensuring that the immunization of children is adopted not as a favor done to children but rather as a mandatory procedure because their lives depend on it.

History of Childhood Vaccination

The history of vaccination is majorly attributed to Edward Jenner. 1796, he successfully developed a treatment for smallpox using a shocking approach that ended up being the breakthrough. In his method, he took fluids from a blister of a person infected with cowpox and performs an arm-to-arm inoculation (Stern & Markel, 2005). There was limited progress during this time till in the 20^th century, where pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus vaccines were developed. It should be noted that as more vaccines were being developed, more insights were adopted by the scientists and therefore, it became easy for them to develop vaccines for more complex diseases. By 1940, the recommended combination of DTP vaccination was made available to children. This vaccine took care of diathermia, tetanus and pertussis (Stern & Markel, 2005).

It was up to 1955 that the major milestone was reached, that is, the successful development of the Polio vaccine. One of the significant fears by parents was polio. The incoming of this vaccine, therefore, was received as one of the best discoveries in the history of vaccination. In was included in the immunization chart as IPV (Stern & Markel, 2005). Other vaccinations were developed in the period during the 1960s and these included the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines and were all subsequently included in the vaccination charts.  It was till the 1980s where another primary vaccination was developed, that is, hepatitis B vaccination, and it was immediately included in the charts (Stern & Markel, 2005). Despite other progress in the vaccinations, in the 2000s, there have been annual updates of the vaccinations, but not any major invention has been made.

Current State of Childhood Vaccination

            Despite the United States of America being a developed country and one with the most prominent influence globally, the state of immunization among children is a matter that is concerning as far as the health system is concerned. As can be seen, this current state of affairs is more of a curse that came as a blessing. The increased awareness and freedom among parents has been viewed as the leading reason behind the current state of affairs. Globally, the immunization rates among children have been viewed as being one of the leading causes of concern. It is among the top ten health issues that are going to affect global health in the future (WHO, 2019). The reason behind this is the fact that children are the future of the world. Not immunizing them today would eventually lead to them become sick while young, have a low quality of life, and as a result, lead to an increase in childhood mortality. Ensuring that children are well protected is, therefore, an agenda that all countries need to take at heart.

The major challenge that is being experienced today is that more and more children steadily lack the needed immunization. In 2018, 19.4 million infants failed to be immunized, and this is enough cause of alarm (WHO, 2019). These immunization challenges are mainly associated with low income developing countries and those identified by the World Health Organization, including DRC Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Viet Nam. This is an indication that immunization among children is majorly associated with the income levels of the people and the stability in the country.

However, the same immunization challenge is experienced in the US, which is a developing country, but the causes are due to different factors. The immunization rates among American Children have remained to be stagnant regardless of the increased birth rates, and this is indicative of the act that there are children that are not immunized. According to the CDC, the vaccination rates among American children have been at 95.1% on average for all states. In all these states, the vaccination rates for measles, mumps, and MMR was at 94.3%. The poliovirus vaccine was at 92.7%, while that of varicella and hepatitis B was at 91% and 91.4%, respectively (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2019). By the numbers remaining constant but the Department of Health and Human Services is, however, targeting to ensure that more and more children get immunization.

The current state in the US is not based on the numbers but rather on the issues surrounding immunization. More and more parents are continually being moved towards avoiding vaccination for their children, and the reasons behind this state of affairs are many. One of the significant barriers that are making it more and more willing to have their children immunized. The leading one is on misinformation about immunization, and this is affecting most new mothers. There are misconceptions that some parents have regarding vaccination that have ended impacting negatively on their beliefs regarding vaccination. One of the major misconceptions that has ended up misguiding most of the mothers is regarding the fact that exposing the infant to the many shots that they are supposed to take has adverse side effects on them, and this would end up impacting negatively on their health (WHO, 2019). This information should not be having any impact on parents if they have the information that the shots are not offered all at once but instead offered in sequence to lower the risk of the side effect. The lack of education, therefore, exposes many parents into this wrong information and hence making them expose their children to health challenges. Other misconception includes the belief that even those that get sick have been vaccinated and therefore, vaccinations are not as important (WHO, 2019).

Another current state of affairs in the US is on the freedom of communication and association. The use of social media has been one of the primary reasons behind the fall of the vaccination campaign for children. There are a lot of websites that are taking advantage of the vulnerability of misinformed parents that, despite not having the needed facts, have been a success to spread misleading information regarding the risk of immunization among children. The use of social media has been used to spread the ideologies of the parents that are against vaccination under the umbrella of anti-vaccination mothers (McKeever&McKeever, 2019). With this freedom of expression and communication, parents are continually refraining from these vaccinations.

Another barrier that is standing on the way of getting all the children getting immunization is the laws. The US promotes liberalism, where parents have the freedom to decide what their children should be subjected to as far as health is of concern (Calandrillo, 2014). As a result, some parents are taking court authorizations that bar their children from being immunized. It is out of these legal limitations that it becomes difficult to get more and more children to be vaccinated.

With the prevailing state of affairs, it is becoming more evident that there is a need for immediate action. This is because, without immediate intervention, more and more children will miss out on their immunization and subsequently leading to a troubled population in the future.

Policy Alternative

The policies and procedures regarding vaccination in the US are guided by the Advisory Committee on Immunization and Practices. The vaccination governing body governs the Federal government, State Government, and both public and private health organizations’ practices towards immunization. There are several policies that have been adopted in the US to promote vaccination among these children.

It is a legal requirement in all the states in the US for children to be immunized prior to their enrollment in any public school. However, exceptions can be made in cases where the children have health problems that affect their vaccination. There are other states, however, that allow other reasons against the immunization of the children. Such reasons from parents include personal, beliefs, and philosophical ideas (CDC, 2019). This is the case where a policy loop comes about. Another policy loop is the case of private schools. There are no laws defined regarding private schools and immunization.

There is also the mature child doctrine as a policy alternative. According to some of the states that accept this doctrine, minors are allowed to consent to be vaccinated even if their parents did not consent to the act (Mancini, 2016). It will enable the child to be vaccinated even if it means the parent does not have knowledge of that happening. The law has been adopted in the US for the purpose of ensuring that children are protected. The limitation of the law is that the maturity of the child depends on the decision of the court.

Recommendations

Based on what has been noted in the previous sections of the paper, this section of the memo looks into reasonable recommendations surrounding the issue of childhood immunization. The recommendations are aimed towards ensuring that every child is exposed to immunization. However, the process of ensuring that this is attained should be based not on enforcing the law on parents but rather on both parents and healthcare providers reaching an amicable understanding that indeed their children are in need of immunization. It should be noted that the recommendations are provided in such a way that they close the immunization gap that currently exists and is making immunization a challenge to be accessible to all the children. The recommendations range from empowering the communities to policies that make immunization a fundamental right of the children and should be given to these children.

• Promotion of awareness and education among parents and guardians

The lack of awareness mainly causes the current state of immunization not being fully accessible to the children. Few parents have had a bad experience with immunization shots that ended up being wrongly delivered and hence affecting their children’s health negatively. These parents, though some activists have been successful at promoting a wrong narrative regarding immunization. Parents that are not well informed have ended up falling victims, and this has impacted negatively on the attitude towards vaccination. With an effective awareness campaign to parents, it will be possible for them to know the vital role of immunization and the different ways upon which it can be of help to their children. The education should be offered to pregnant women so that they are informed early.

• Ensuring the immunization shots are of the highest quality with no harm to the children

One of the most prominent reasons behind women choosing not to have their children immunized is because of the media stories of immunization shots that have ended up harming innocent children. These effects are severe and, therefore, have a chance of damaging the wellness of the children for the better part of their lives. Thus, it becomes essential that healthcare providers are held accountable in the case of negligence. The quality of the immunization shots should be assuring such that instances of harm among children are avoided. This will make parents regain the lost confidence they had towards these forms of treatment.

• Making immunization easy and fast to attain by people of all economic levels

In as much as the current healthcare systems make immunization easily accessible and available to as many children as possible, the accessibility to the vaccine needs to be increased further. Any cost relating to childhood immunization should be made free. In places with vulnerable and minority communities such as the homeless and people living in secluded areas. The vaccine should be taken to the point where the children are located. This will be the only assuring way of having 100% immunization throughout the country. By this also, parents will be motivated to make their children available for the shots, especially for those that have missed some of these shots.

• Enhancing Policies that ensure immunization gets to all the children

The gaps in ensuring that all the children get the needed vaccination are majorly due to the fact that there are policy gaps that make parents and guardians fail in the provision of immunization to their children. There is a need for the policies to be put in place such that parents and guardians are made accountable when they fail to present their children for the immunization. While healthcare providers should be held responsible in case of practice negligence in the provision of these services, there is a need for the parents also to be accountable when they fail to present their children for immunization.  However, such policies should only be put into practice once all the people have been educated on the need for them to present their children for vaccination. Immunization should be viewed as a fundamental right of the child because it grantees them a healthy life, and the denial of this by the parents should be considered to be the denial of a healthy life.

Policies should be set targeting social settings, mainly schools and hospitals so that it becomes easy to trace the children that are yet to be immunized and then proceed towards vaccinating them. Schools should demand the immunization records of patients for them to admit the children. Those without such records should be directed for immunization before being admitted. In healthcare facilities too, the policies should be such that children that are yet to be immunized are immunized as part of the care they were meant to get.

References

American Academy of Family Physicians.  (2019). CDC: Vaccination Coverage of Children Remains High. Retrieved from: https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20181019kidsvaccs.html

Calandrillo, S. P. (2004). Vanishing vaccinations: why are so many Americans opting out of vaccinating their children. U. Mich. JL Reform, 37, 353.

CDC. (2019).State Vaccination Requirements.Center for Disease Control and Prevention.Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/laws/state-reqs.html

Kaufman, J., Ryan, R., Walsh, L., Horey, D., Leask, J., Robinson, P., & Hill, S. (2018). Face‐to‐face interventions for informing or educating parents about early childhood vaccination. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (5).

Mancini, C. R. (2016). Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now, in Re: Cassandra C.: Why Connecticut Should Have Adopted a Standard for the Mature Minor Doctrine. Quinnipiac Prob. LJ, 30, 247.

McKeever, B., W. &McKeever, R. (2019). Anti-vaccination mothers have outsized voice on social media – pro-vaccination parents could make a difference.  The Conversation.Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/africa/education

Stern, A. M., & Markel, H. (2005). The history of vaccines and immunization: familiar patterns, new challenges. Health affairs, 24(3), 611-621.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.611

WHO.(2019). Immunization Coverage. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/immunization-coverage

WHO.(2019). Six common misconceptions about immunization. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/