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Vaccines: if no one gets the diseases any more, why do them?

Many parents wonder why, if the diseases that we vaccinate for have been practically eradicated, should they still have their children vaccinated.

The simple truth is that in most cases, the disease hasn’t been wiped out altogether, and there is still a chance that there may be an outbreak. If your child is not vaccinated, he or she is that much more susceptible to getting that particular disease. One example of this is Hib. Before the Hib vaccine became widely used, this disease was the number one cause of bacterial meningitis in babies, and claimed hundreds of lives each year. Since the vaccine became available, there has been a drop in cases of nearly 100 percent.

The second reason is that the more unvaccinated people there are, the more people will get infected, and there will be a higher instance of that disease.

Then there’s the issue of travel. While many of the diseases your child is vaccinated against are unheard of in the developed world, there are plenty of places where they still occur. Should you, or someone you know, visit one of those places, there’s always the risk that your child will be infected.

It’s been proven, in fact, that when people stop vaccinating against diseases, the instance rises, and more people get sick. So while there’s very little risk to your child, there is still a risk, and it’s always wiser to rather vaccinate, and give your child the protection.

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