Childhood Vaccinations

Prepared by Alaska Medical Clinics, Inc. (October 2002)

Now that school has started, you are probably well aware that the State of Alaska requires vaccinations for all children attending schools and childcare facilities. In addition to required vaccinations for diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, and rubella, in 2001, the State began requiring all school children to be vaccinated for protection from mumps, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B. Also, preschoolers were required to be vaccinated for hib and varicella (chickenpox).

Dimond and Wasilla Medical Clinics have vaccinated many children—and adults who request them—in our clinics, and we felt it would be helpful to provide our patients with an article that explains why these vaccinations are considered to be so essential to a child’s well being.

According to the State of Alaska Division of Health and Social Services, individuals can protect themselves, their families and friends, and their communities from serious life-threatening infections by staying up-to-date on recommended vaccines. “Vaccines offer safe and effective protection from infectious disease,” said Public Health Director Karen Pearson. Alaska has devoted considerable effort to increasing the immunization levels of 2-year-old children. By this measure, the State is ranked 26th in the nation today, compared to the state’s ranking of 48th in 1996.

According to Pearson, immunizations are still important. “Immunization is a significant public health achievement of the 20th century, and it’s critical as we enter the 21st century. Vaccines eradicated smallpox, and significantly reduced the number of cases of polio, measles, diphtheria, rubella, pertussis and other diseases. But despite these efforts, thousands of people in the U.S. are not properly vaccinated and, as a result, still suffer today from these and other vaccine-preventable diseases.”

How Vaccines Work

by the State of Alaska, Section of Epidemiology Immunization Program

The immune system is the defense mechanism in each person that helps the body fight disease. Medical science has found an effective way to help the immune system fight disease through the use of vaccines. When you get an infection, your body reacts by producing substances called antibodies. These antibodies fight the foreign substance (antigen) or disease and help you get over the illness. The antibodies usually stay in your system even after the disease has gone and protect you from getting the same disease again. This is called immunity. Newborn babies often have immunity to some diseases because they have antibodies that they received from their mothers during pregnancy or through breast-feeding. But this immunity is only temporary. By immunizing our children, we can help them remain immune to many diseases, even after they lose their mothers’ antibodies. Vaccines make the body think it is being invaded by a specific disease, and the body reacts by producing antibodies. Then, if the child is exposed to the disease in the future, he or she is protected. Even in the rate instances that a vaccinated child gets a vaccine-preventable disease, the symptoms are usually much less severe, and the child recovers more quickly than if he or she had not been vaccinated. Some vaccines consist of weakened disease virus. These vaccines (measles vaccine, for example) are extremely effective with only one or two doses. Some other vaccines are made of inactivated, or “killed,” virus or bacteria (like the injectable polio vaccine, “IPV”) and require multiple doses to build up the immune response. Some inactivated vaccines, like the vaccine against tetanus and diptheria, require booster doses throughout life.

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