...Immunization is a very controversial topic including the issue of mandatory flu vaccination for front-line health care workers. Health care workers are the front-line workers to whom patients are first exposed to during the initial encounter to medical system. Influenza is commonly referred to as the seasonal flu which strikes 5% to 15% of the world’s population with approximately 3 to 5 million severe cases of illness which leads to 250000 to 500000 deaths annually (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). In addition, hospital acquired influenza has a 16% mortality rate which increases to 60% in high-risk population groups (Cortes-Penfield, 2014). Specifically in Canada, the average rate of influenza infection is 10% to 20% of the population...
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...Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations Review Shumetria Cleveland English 321 Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations Review Introduction Influenza is a highly, contagious virus that affects the respiratory system. It is transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets by an infected person coughing or sneezing. Influenza is much more serious than the common cold and is preventable. Good hand washing, covering your cough, and good health habits will prevent the spread of influenza and other respiratory diseases. It is onset by chills, fatigue, high fever, cough, sore throat, and body aches are some sign or symptoms of influenza often referred to as the flu. The incubation period is one to four days. Each year, influenza causes a significant increase in illness and death. In the elderly, children, patients with chronic illness and immune compromised disease. Once in a while the influenza changes to a severe disease. In the early 1900 there was a pandemic that killed approximately 20,000,000 people. Scientist later discovered the bacterial that causes the virus by testing the blood. Today physicians are able to keep the bacterial infections under control with antibiotics. In 2009 the swine flu epidemic caused illness, stole lives and flashed a light on health care workers to get mandatory influenza vaccinations. Some institutions, for the first time, implemented policies for mandatory influenza vaccines for health care workers due to the escalation of the swine flu...
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... However vaccinations help us not to suffer from a certain health problem and lead to an advantageous response to infection. We have had many inoculations decades such as polio, measles, tetanus, diphtheria, etc. As a person of South Korea, I have had many vaccinations. It plays an important role in living healthy. Therefore, I think that all nations should be mandatory vaccinations because it would protect individual and the nation’s health. According to Health Affairs, a journal about healthcare and health policy, a vaccine was attempted for the first time by Edward Jenner who was a doctor from the United Kingdom in 1796. During this time, smallpox spread throughout the UK. Meanwhile Jenner discovered that ranch workers milking cows everyday didn’t catch well the disease. There was a disease, cowpox that is similar to smallpox but a weaker form. When a person contracted cowpox, he or she could endure well than a person who caught smallpox and wasn’t stricken with smallpox anymore. Inspired by this realization Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine after some experiments using cowpox virus. Since then the term ‘vaccine’ began to be used by Louis Pasteur who has been called “microbial father”....
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...“Why should I get vaccinated? Don’t they cause autism and have other risks?” The concern whether vaccines should be made mandatory has been a topic of debate recently as people are becoming apprehensive about the safety of immunizations. Americans are doubting the effectiveness of vaccines, and unfortunately are deciding to refuse vaccination. Refusing vaccinations threatens the defense against diseases not only for that individual, but for our community as well. People who do not receive vaccinations put everybody at risk, and this introduces a major concern for our public health. My proposal to benefit our community, and to help preserve the health of the new generation is that vaccinations should be made mandatory for people that are not...
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...Mandatory Vaccinations Since the dawn of time human beings have been plagued with copious diseases. Through a plethora of years scientists have been working hard to discover cures for these detrimental diseases. Whether or not a person decides to receive vaccines is up to them. Looking back at the effects of these diseases poses the question; should vaccination be mandatory? When people are not vaccinated, they cause a great threat to the health of the public, therefore, vaccines should be made mandatory. A vaccine is a substance that makes your body produce antibodies and gives a person immunity against one or more illnesses. They are generally made with a biological pathogen from the illness. It acts as an antigen which is a relatively harmless part of the pathogen and allows the body to produce more antibodies to fight the disease. Vaccines work as a mock infection. When the powerless virus enters your body, it produces more antibodies. When it easily destroys the virus your body is left with the surplus of the disease specific antibodies that prohibit the virus from causing any harm (U.S. Department of...
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...the immune system and tries infecting other living cells. Children are much more vulnerable to diseases compared to adults because of the fact that their immune systems is still developing. Children are weak because they haven’t lived life long enough to gain immunity to diseases. So how could children protect themselves from diseases one may ask? Taking vaccination early will not only protect you from diseases, but greatly improve your immune system to counter all the other diseases. The invention of medical immunizations has not only been used to heal from the disease, but also to keep the spread of disease low. Having immunizations available have greatly lowered the amount of deaths in the world. Vaccination should continue to stay mandatory because it keeps diseases from spreading and eventually killing everyone. Bacteria and viruses infect humans in many different ways. Breathing in bacteria and viruses is one way. This can cause chest pain and coughing which is a symptom of Meningitis, one of most popular diseases in children. Meningitis is an infection in the cerebro-spinal fluid which surrounds the brain and spinal cord. During the infection, people...
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...Clinical Situations Position Paper Kelli B. Teems University of West Georgia Professional Nursing Concepts (Nurs 4102) Professor J. Wilder, MSN, NP-C April 7, 2015 Part 4 – Immunity and Health Policy Vaccination has been known to provide immunity to a variety of illnesses, including influenza. To minimize influenza-related deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that vulnerable people and health care workers (HCW) be vaccinated against influenza annually (van den Dool, Bont, Hak, Heijne & Wallinga, 2008). A topic of debate between HCWs and healthcare facilities is the discussion over whether annual influenza shots should be mandatory. Multiple studies have been completed to determine if the benefits are substantial enough...
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...purpose of this paper, I purposely stayed away from life and death issues. I have a strong moral and ethical stance on allowing patients to die with dignity. Keeping patients alive or giving treatments to prolong life without quality is so against my morals. If the patient chooses to become a DNR or refuses "recommended" life sustaining treatments, they should have the autonomy to do so. A recent example in the news is the death of Steve Jobs. Now that he has passed away, everyone and their brother are saying that he was a difficult patient. They say he refused lifesaving treatments and surgeries. This is easy to say now that he has passed. We cannot go back now and do a Whipple on him to compare how much longer he would have lived. Whipples are extremely involved procedures and can lead to many complications, with no guarantee of prolonged life. Monday morning quarterbacks are a dime a dozen. The ethical issue that I choose to use for my paper is the recent dilemma of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for boys. Vaccinations in general have always been on the list of ethical topics in healthcare. From parents of newborns who believe in the false link between vaccinations and autism, to pediatricians who refuse to continue to provide care to their patients whose parents refuse to vaccinate, to the newest dilemma of the HPV vaccination. This dilemma includes the recent comment made by Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann about HPV vaccine causing mental retardation...
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...College Author's note This paper was written for MLS 500: Graduate Research and Writing taught by Dr. Kyla Hammond Most healthcare professionals and leaders attribute vaccination as the single-most important reason for increasing the health of the human population during the past one hundred years. As a result, required immunizations are common in the U. S. and other developed countries. However, there is a segment of society who argue against vaccination due to worries that immunizing negatively impacts future health. More and more information is becoming available that presents allopathic vaccination in an ugly light. (Sharma, 2003) For the past century, vaccines for diptheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and now more recently, hepatitis B and varicella have programmed our immune systems to be powerful protectors of our health. Compulsory state immunization laws have increased the U.S. immunization rate to 77%, the highest ever. (Largent, 2012) Despite high immunization rates, there is an underlying progression of a movement of parents questioning whether the vaccines are contributing to health conditions such as autism. Contributing to the uncertainty are occasional anecdotal accounts of parents with children who experience adverse reactions. Fear causes many parents to entirely forego vaccines for their children. Regardless of mandatory school vaccine laws for school children, physicians can exempt children from vaccines due to a medical reason. In...
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...Research Proposal The subject of my persuasive essay is asking the question: Should vaccinations be mandatory for all children. I will be debating why it is extremely important for children to be vaccinated. I believe all peoples, especially children of very young ages, to be vaccinated to help against any germs and illnesses they may come into contact with in their later years. The importance of vaccinations should be instilled into every human being for one simple reason: protection. I became interested in this topic upon being given this research assignment. I have many siblings and young nieces and nephews who I want to live very healthy lives. It is important to me that I express my concern to their parents about the importance of vaccinations to insure their children remain healthy. I believe this topic will surely interest my audience. I plan to inform them of the importance of vaccinations, as well as inform them of the risks of going without them. My main audience will likely be young children and their parents, as well as people who hope to one day have children of their own. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “most childhood vaccines are 90% to 99% effective in preventing disease.” This quote answers the questions as to why vaccines should be necessary for all children. The AAP explains that if parents decide that they do not want their child vaccinated, they will be putting their child at a great risk. Unlike the Center for Disease Control and...
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... Vaccinations have proven to be extremely effective. After receiving two doses of the measles vaccination, 97% of people are immune to this disease (“For Health Care Professionals” 2). It is completely unacceptable to have an outbreak of a disease that is almost completely preventable and was eliminated from the United States 15 years ago. In order to protect citizens against communicable diseases, it should be mandatory for almost everyone to receive vaccinations. There are two types of immunizations: active and passive. The more common of the two is the active immunization, which stimulates the body’s immune system to fabricate a defense against a disease-causing microorganism (“Immunization” 1). The first recorded active immunization was Edward Jenner’s use of the cowpox virus to produce immunity to smallpox in 1796 (Riedel 5). Currently, any formulation containing a microorganism for the purpose of immunization is referred to as a vaccine. A population is fully protected from a disease when herd immunity has been reached ("Herd Immunity — History of Vaccines." 1). Herd immunity is when those who cannot become vaccinated are indirectly protected by the large, vaccinated percentage...
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...fought against diseases and famine. But it seemed like they found a way to fight back by use of vaccinations when Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine in 1796. As the years go on, vaccinations have become a major controversial topic since many believe they may be able to trigger disabilities and cause side effects, even though they save countless lives. The Centers for Disease Control recommends children get vaccinations from birth to age six but there happens to be no federal law that make vaccinations mandatory, though all 50 states require specific vaccines for children entering the public school system. Though there are many pros to vaccines, many people believe they can lead to health problems. In the following research paper, they will all be presented and discussed. Vaccines, the development of medicines, and hospitals have helped humans...
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...whether or not laws should be established to declare vaccination mandatory for all children. “The US food and Drug administration (FDA) regulates all vaccines to ensure safety and effectiveness,” (ProCon.org, 2012) therefor there should not be any reason to risk the health of any child. Vaccinating our children not only ensures their safety but also that of their future to come. The first major concern parents have when it comes to childhood vaccinations is that of the health and safety of their children. Some parents believe that vaccines were developed to help the spread against dangerous transmittable diseases. Other parents are under the impression that vaccines themselves present high risk factors for their children. Both have strong arguing points in this controversy and have good reason to believe in what they do. Proponents argue and the facts clearly show that since the emergence of vaccines in the twentieth century for common life threatening diseases, such as measles and diphtheria, the related number of deaths has decreased by more than 500%. On the other side, opponents argue that childhood vaccines are responsible for the dramatic increase of autoimmune diseases. Many proponents argue that childhood vaccination is vital and should be a state requirement not a parental option. They feel that vaccines are a necessity that should be required for the safety and future of all mankind. Childhood vaccines eliminate disease and counteract many life-threatening illnesses...
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...should I get vaccinated? It is just a waste of time and money. I never got vaccinated before and never will.” That’s what one of my colleagues said when he was asked to get vaccinated during the outbreak of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, few years ago in Mongolia. Then, I had reasoned him that disease comes all of a sudden and it is more serious than he thinks. As reported on CDC, Centers for Disease Control, 40 percent of all American parents were refusing one or more vaccines for their children (Willrich 3). So it is clearly one of the most significant public health issues today. There are lots of people who hold the belief against vaccination because of several reasons. Even though there is a public notion that vaccine has bad effects on human body, I strongly believe that vaccinating is the most crucial and effective way to keep people healthy by preventing future diseases and it also helps people to avoid spreading out the infectious diseases. Therefore, vaccination should be mandatory. First of all, I believe that the precaution of future disease should be imposed. People need to get vaccinated to improve their immune system to avoid future diseases and they need to be responsible for their safety. According to Michael Willrich, an internationally recognized historian, the contagious disease called smallpox spread out across the country at the turn of the 20th century. It is one of the deadliest diseases in human history that killed twenty five to thirty percent...
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...Vaccines have double the human life expectancy for over 150 years and have eradicated diseases like smallpox and soon polio could be the next disease to be eradicated from the world. The concept of vaccines has existed around the world for hundreds of years. One of the first methods of vaccinations was known as, variolation (Nazarko, 2013). Variolation was popular in China as well as other countries in the Middle East during the 10th century. Asians and Middle Eastern people collected samples of dry tissues from the scabs of smallpox survivors and would put it into healthy people’s bodies. The process of variolation consisted of making a wound on a person’s arm and inserting the dry tissues scabs in the wound to contract the virus and obtain...
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