According to the World Health Organization, certain vaccines defending against diseases

like polio, measles, and hepatitis B are provided for children in 85% of the world (World Health

Organization 1). With the aid of humanitarian organizations and donations, developing countries

have been able to immunize more and more children as years go by. Unfortunately, vaccines for

rotaviruses are only accessible for 19% of the world. Rotaviruses are known to be the leading

cause of severe diarrhoeal diseases, so it is imperative to provide this vaccine to children (World

Health Organization 2). Many of the deaths of minors from early illness can easily be prevented

with a vaccine. As we ascend into the future, under-5 mortality has heavily decreased across the

globe, but there are still those who require our help and need the vaccines to survive their harsh

environment that they live in. Various factors such as funding and no community outreach about

immunizations inhibits children from getting the necessary injections that could just save their

lives.

As medicine has improved in the later years, the number of vaccines has exponentially

increased and the cost of vaccines has increased dramatically. In order to decrease vaccination

costs and improve morale for children to be vaccinated, the United States instilled programs such

as Vaccines for Children and Section 317 to reduce vaccinations costs and allow families more

opportunities to vaccinate their children. The Vaccines for Children program worked to provide

free vaccinations to children who were of the American Indian descendant and also aided

children without any insurance (Hinman et al. 1442). Unlike the VFC program, Section 317 was

set to deliver more immunization services to any child who required it. To increase the number of

immunized children, public schools required their students to be up to date with their

immunizations in order to attend school. Due to this rule, 90 percent of children were already
immunized by the age of 5 or 6 (Hinman et al. 1442). If programs such as the VFC program and

Section 317 were implemented in underdeveloped countries, child mortality would decrease and

the number of preventable deaths would lower. However, underdeveloped countries have taken

initiative to increase children immunization.

According to Eric Zuehlke, the main influence to reducing infant mortality is that

developing countries have better access to immunization services than before (Zuehlke 1).

Immunizations can be provided through humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF and

Doctors without Borders. Since the vaccine trade has grown larger and larger by the decade,

vaccine manufactures fight to keep up with the global demand. So far, developing countries have

manufactures who are meeting up to 86 percent of the global demand for basic vaccines

(Zuehlke 1). The problem, however, lies in providing vaccines for more specific viruses such as

rotavirus and yellow fever. For example, only 23 percent of the globe had access to the rotavirus

vaccine (World Health Organization 1). Its a wonder to know as we advance with new medical

technologies, the whole world will be able to keep up because there has been such a high influx

of new diseases and possible treatments.. Furthermore, some countries lack the access to

necessary immunizations and its children go unprotected.

In 2015, the World Health Organization released data revealing that 19.4 million infants

in the countries Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq,

Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Ukraine go without having any of the necessary

immunizations (World Health Organization 2). In response, WHO had implemented the Global

Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), where serves to Close the immunization gap by bringing
vaccines for life-dangering diseases like polio and pneumococcal disease (World Health

Organization 2). This plan hopes to met most of global vaccine demand by the year of 2020.

Other humanitarian organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World

Bank fund other initiatives that work towards strengthening delivery systems for vaccines and

making new vaccinations more available to the public (Zuehlke 1). Even with the initiatives

taken, some vaccinations have been refused based on the belief that vaccinations can bring more

harm than good.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 25 percent of parents

believed that the immunization schedule of children has gotten too hectic and by having more

vaccinations, their immune system is slowly weakening (Bronfin 151). When the immune system

is weak, the body is more susceptible to other diseases. One vaccine that parents have spoken out

about is hepatitis B. The hepatitis B vaccine typically hinder bacteria that causes hepatitis B

when the person is sexually active or using intravesical drugs (Bronfin 152). The parents

argument is that their children will not participate in any kind of sexual activity and therefore

dont need the shot. The hepatitis B vaccine has a 90 to 95 percent efficiency on protection

against hepatitis B, so it would be a better choice to get the vaccine in case of anything (Bronfin

152).

In Japan, researchers had looked into the harmful effects of the measles, mumps, and

rubella (MMR) vaccine on a population of children. The vaccine had already been known to

cause some specific cases of meningitis, later found to be caused by one of the strains in the

vaccine (Uchiyama et al. 210). Based on previous information, the MMR vaccine was assumed
to cause a form of regressive autism. By going through a population of children with autism

spectrum disorders (ASD), the three researchers listed those who had gotten the MMR vaccine

and those who do not. After performing some tests, the researchers concluded that they were

unable to find any connection between the MMR vaccine and autism (Uchiyama et al. 216). To

give benefit of the doubt, in rare occurrences, vaccines have been shown to cause negative

effects because of the bodys incapability to properly use the dead strain for defense. There have

also been cases where the person had a severe allergy reaction to the vaccine, causing a rare

disorder to occur. Another reason why people are scared of getting vaccines for their children is

because they dont know enough information about it to trust the immunization industry.

Supply and demand for vaccines has increased dramatically over the years to

accommodate the growing world, but some places still lack the necessary access to important

immunizations. Even if access was given, some are wary of immunizations because they didnt

have the opportunity to learn more. To take initiative, village health volunteers in Thailand

created a community outreach project to educate indigenous people about the importance of

immunizations. The way that the volunteers connected to the villagers was that they created an

edutainment module based on tablets so that the target audience, mothers, could have an

interactive learning experience (Dway et al. 131). After the informative session, the mothers had

a positive outlook on the use of vaccinations. Even with their low education, the mothers were

able to understand the information through animations and questionnaires (Dway et al. 131). If

this type of program was implemented in other countries, more people will be aware of

immunizations and be more in favor of getting their children vaccinated. With this new uproar of
positivity through immunization, it can show the government that more funding should be put

into providing immunization services to the common people.

Ever since I was a little girl, I had always wanted to help people. It sounds clich, but at a

young age, I had witnessed the drastic conditions in underdeveloped countries. Coming from an

immigrant family and of two cultures, I had visited two different parts of the world when I was

the age of 6 and 10. People living in bad conditions and with poor healthcare was heavily present

in my homelands. I was also exposed to heart-wrenching documentaries about countries in the

world where children were sick and dying from dehydration or starvation. For a young child, I

reassured myself that I would make my life count on this Earth by helping others get better.

In the future, I hope to use my medical skills to assist in pediatric clinics around the world.
Vaccines for certain diseases are inaccessible to some children around the world and the number
of preventable deaths still looms at a high number. Im going to do my best to tackle said number
and save as much people as I can. When I have enough money, I wish to bring regular donations
to worldwide organization so that others can use the funds to make the world a better place. . At
best, I will make donations to charitable organizations, so someone can be helped in the world. I
want to use my career choice to help others in the world.
 Works Cited

Bronfin, Daniel R. Childhood Immunization Controversies: What Are Parents Asking? The

Ochsner Journal. 8.3 (2008): 151156. National Institution of Health. Web. 21 Jan 2017

Dway, Ngwa Sar, et al. "Effects Of Edutainment On Knowledge And Perceptions Of Lisu

Mothers About The Immunisation Of Their Children." Health Education Journal 75.2 (2016):

131-143. ERIC. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.

Hinman, Alan R., Orenstein, Walter A., and Lance Rodewald. Financing Immunizations in the

United States. Oxford Journals 38.10 (2004): 1440-1446. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.

Immunization coverage. World Health Organization. September 2016. Online. 20 January

2017.

Uchiyama, Tokio, Michiko Kurosawa, and Yutaka Inaba. "MMR-Vaccine And Regression In

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Negative Results Presented From Japan." Journal Of Autism And

Developmental Disorders 37.2 (2007): 210-217. ERIC. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.

Zuehlke, Eric. Child Mortality Decreases Globally and Immunization Coverage Increases,

Despite Unequal Access. Population Reference Bureau. December 2009. Online. 20 January

2017.