MICHAEL FOWLER: Vaccinations are vital to everyone’s health

It’s that time of year again. If you listen closely I’m sure you can hear parents cheering all across the county.

School is back in session.

But as you press uniforms and pack lunches, let’s make sure all your shot records are in order. Here in Dougherty County all students are required to have proper immunizations and vaccines before entering into the school system.

Vaccinations protect children from serious illness and complications of vaccine-preventable diseases, which can include amputation of an arm or leg, paralysis of limbs, hearing loss, convulsions, brain damage and death.

Vaccination is safe and effective. All vaccines undergo long and careful review by scientists, doctors and the federal government to make sure they are safe. Vaccination protects others you care about, including family members, friends and grandparents.

Vaccines are as important to your overall health as diet and exercise. Like eating healthy foods, exercising and getting regular checkups, vaccines play a vital role in keeping you healthy. Vaccines are one of the most convenient and safest preventive care measures available. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccinations throughout your life to protect against many infections.

When you skip vaccines, you leave yourself vulnerable to illnesses such as shingles, pneumococcal disease, influenza, and HPV and hepatitis B, both leading to cancer.

Vaccine-preventable diseases are dangerous. Every year, approximately 50,000 U.S. adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases. Infants and the elderly are at greater risk for serious infections and complications in many cases, but vaccine-preventable disease can strike anyone. If you’re young and healthy, getting vaccinated can help you stay that way.

A small number of people may be susceptible to diseases, such as those with impaired immune systems. These people may not be able to get vaccinations or may not develop immunity even after having been vaccinated. Their only protection against certain disease is for others to get vaccinated so the illnesses are less common.

Getting immunized costs less than getting treated for the diseases that the shots protect you from. Even though some diseases, such as polio, rarely affect people in the U.S., all of the recommended childhood immunizations and booster vaccines are still needed.

These diseases still exist in other countries. Travelers unknowingly bring these diseases into the U.S. and infect people who have not been immunized. Non-immunized people living in healthy conditions are not protected from diseases. Your body’s immune system can fight a disease better and faster if you had the infection before or if you get immunized.

We all have a public health commitment to our communities to protect each other and other’s children by vaccinating ourselves and our family members.

Michael Fowler is the Dougherty County coroner. He can be contacted at (229) 438-3974 or email [email protected].