It is a bitter pill to swallow to think that so much of the good
accomplished through childhood immunizations could hang in the balance
and be just a generation or two away from disappearing.
The push for vaccination, especially of school-age children, has
helped eradicate some diseases. Other childhood killers have been all
but nullified through the miracle of medicine.
It was a matter of a few generations ago that polio was a worldwide
epidemic. Since the 1840s, the virus had claimed thousands of lives and
left thousands of other sufferers wheelchair bound or confined to
machines to help them breathe.
Through immunization of school children, poliomyelitis is almost unheard
of in the Western Hemisphere since the late 1970s. Those who receive a
vaccine against the disease have a 90 percent less risk of contracting
the illness, which is why it is still a required immunization for
children.
