As a parent, you may not like seeing your baby or child being given an injection. However, vaccination is an important step in protecting your child against a range of serious and potentially fatal diseases.
Vaccinations are quick, safe and extremely effective. Once your child has been vaccinated against a disease, their body can fight that disease more effectively if they come into contact with it. If a child isn't vaccinated, they will be at increased risk of catching the illness.
There will always be some children who are unavoidably unprotected because:
- they can't be vaccinated for medical reasons
- they're too young to be vaccinated
- they can't get to the vaccine services
- for a few, the vaccine doesn't work
But if more parents have their children vaccinated, then more children in the community will be protected against catching an illness. This lowers the chance of an outbreak of the disease.
The only time that it's safe to stop vaccinating children against an illness is when the disease has been wiped out worldwide.
For example, when every country had eliminated smallpox in 1979, vaccination against the disease was stopped. It's hoped that polio will soon be eradicated, and that measles may follow.
Read six tips for parents taking their children to be vaccinated.
