Mr.

Kamstra

Mikayla Woods

9th October 2012

Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Each year there are an estimated number of four million deaths a year from
vaccine-preventable diseases. A vaccine-preventable disease is a disease that with
the possibility of a simple needle that inserts a vaccine, containing sometimes a
germ from the disease itself, into your body that will cause a reaction where your
bodys natural defence system (or immune system) creates antibodies, which learn
fight off that particular disease. These antibodies remember how to fight off this
germ and its disease so if the germ ever enters your body it will know how to fight
it. These vaccines are available easily and sometimes even mandatory in developed
countries like Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The percentage of
people who die from vaccine-preventable diseases is an infinitesimally low number
in these countriesso what is amounting to the four millions deaths? In other
countries, less developed than our own, where vaccines are not as accessible but
the most disease-related deaths occur. Simple diseases like the flu, to more serious
ones like Polio, HPV (human papillomavirus) and Typhoid Fever can be prevented by
simple vaccines that already exist today and are given on a global scale. According
to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, around twenty-one percent of children
around the world dont have access to vaccinations. These diseases, that are merely
almost comparable to myths in developed countries are killing thousands and
millions in other places where doctors appointments are few and far between and
sometimes non-existent, which therefore means the customary immunizations that
children in more developed countries receive at certain ages dont exist. In Canada,
the flu shot is available every year, seasonally around the time winter begins, we
receive the measles shot along with our Rubella and mumps shortly after we turn
one year of age simple vaccines that seem common for diseases that we dont

Mr. Kamstra

Mikayla Woods

9th October 2012

know the symptoms or origin of. Because of successful vaccines, these diseases are
ignored and considered unimportant. Meanwhile it could potential be lifethreatening if contracted. Globalization, as the way the world interconnects as one
global village, has led to both the increased spread of the disease and the creation
of successful vaccines to prevent those same diseases. With globalization, it leads
to more people being able to travel from country to country easier, and diseases
become widespread when its carried from one place to another, but globalization is
also the cure because with the interconnectedness of the world, including its
medical research, the findings of people all over the world comparing notes and
experiences and information theyve created a successful vaccine. In third world
countries, where the digital divide is clearly evident and media is almost nonexistent, people may not even know about vaccines, or the diseases that can be
prevented with them. A simple solution to that issue to for the government to fund
NGOs that will go to developing countries and educate the people there on
vaccines and diseases and the preventative methods they can take, for example
increased hygiene so that if someone did catch a disease than it could be contained
and not become an outbreak. Focusing on our own developed countries, the
outbreaks of diseases that are preventable by vaccines could also be solved with
educating people. Many parents choose not to have their children be given the
shots, and though their mandatory, its hard to track and so many parents get away
with it. But their children are nearly three times more susceptible to catch a
vaccine-preventable disease than a child with the immunization. Another solution
that can be solved by the government is for them to provide more funding to
medical labs that are trying, and are close to, making breakthroughs with vaccine
technology. A lot of people dont want to have vaccines because theyre

Mr. Kamstra

Mikayla Woods

9th October 2012

administered through needles, and medical labs are working on finding new ways to
administer vaccines, like through the mouth or with a nasal spray and if the
government fund those projects and they perhaps come up with a new technology
that could revolutionize the needle vaccines, than maybe more people would be
comfortable with receiving the vaccine. People dying from vaccine-preventable
diseases are devastating losses because they could have easily been prevented
with a simple needle in the arm. People in the developed countries take vaccines for
granted, meanwhile less fortunate people die from the diseases were protected
from every day. And people in developing countries need help to take hold of the
resources that need to be offered to them. This whole issue could be solved through
funding of educational programs and research programs so theres no real reason
that it should be ignored and put off because it could only get worse if we dont try
to fix it now, in the present.