The most potent killer of humans for a long time has been infectious disease – viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
These invaders from the outside world infiltrate various parts of the human body, replicate themselves, and by multiplication and by the toxins they produce, overwhelm the body’s defense mechanisms.
One of the great medical advances of the past 150 years is vaccination. Vaccination works by exposing the body’s immune system to an inactivated germ or a part of the protein from the germ. The immune system creates antibodies in large quantity to fight the infection, should it appear. Furthermore, the immune system now has a “memory” of that first exposure and can react vigorously should the disease appear in the future.
Children today have an excellent chance of surviving to adulthood because of the control of infectious disease partly through the use of vaccinations. Unfortunately, no parents of young children today remember the devastation of the Flu Epidemic of 1918 or the death and disability caused by diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, and polio in the first half of the 20th Century.
So why should adults get immunizations? Unfortunately, this immune system “memory” ability fades with time. Therefore, adults need to be immunized to “boost” their immune system “memory”. Why?
First, childhood diseases in adults can have some nasty consequences that children don’t have. The recent mumps in hockey players had a high risk of orchiitis and infertility. Second, the fewer people in a population that have immunity, the easier it is to continue to pass on an infection. At least 70% of all people in a population need to keep their immunity high – known has herd immunity – to keep an infectious disease from spreading rapidly. Third, adults who catch childhood diseases may not have devastating consequences. But they can pass the disease on to a child who will. Adults who contract whooping cough (pertussis) may cough for a few weeks. An infant has a high likelihood of being hospitalized and dying. Fourth, severe consequences of childhood illness can appear in adulthood, such as shingles (from the chicken pox virus) or post-polio syndrome (from the polio virus). You don’t want these consequences.
Check the CDC web-site for some excellent information on adult vaccinations at www.cdc.gov/vaccines. Armed with this information, talk with your doctor about your vaccinations. Protect your neighbor against the infectious disease you might unknowingly transmit. It’s the neighborly thing to do.