IMMUNIZATION

Immunization is the use of vaccines in the prevention of diseases in a given population.

The main aim of immunization is the prevention of disease. Public health officials aim to immunize at least 70% of a given group of people to break the infection cycle of a disease thereby providing ‘Herd Immunity’ for the unimmunized part of the population.

Depending on the type of disease and it’s causative agents, different vaccines can be used.

Vaccines itself are substances which when introduced into the body provokes antibodies formation to fight against an infection.

Vaccines to cure a particular disease are made mostly from the causative organism of that disease. The organism might either be killed or attenuated (weakened).
It is important for vaccines to be maintained in their original and recommended state as change in certain parameters might unstabilize vaccines bringing about drastic effects which may include causing the disease being prevented.

Certain factors which affect success rate of immunization includes

1. Previous infection.

This may alter the response of an individual to an inactivated vaccine.

1. Route of immunization

Vaccines have manufacturers recommended route e.g intranasally, intradermally, orally etc which must be followed according to achieve optimal results.

1. Timing

interval between doses are based on both theoretical and vaccines trials. The resulting recommendations must be adhered to.

1. Choice of vaccines

Some vaccines gets activated slower than the incubation periods of some diseases. These types of vaccines must be administered before exposure to the disease.

The state of recipients of vaccines should also be noted. Pregnant women and people with compromised immunity are not to take all kinds of vaccines.

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