Vaccination
Article
May 25, 2022
Vaccination consists in the administration of a vaccine both for prophylactic purposes (vaccine prophylaxis) and for therapeutic purposes (vaccinotherapy). Vaccine prophylaxis is a type of vaccination carried out to create an immune state against one or more diseases by activating the components of the immune system to respond better to a specific pathogen. Its effectiveness is in relation to its extension towards the population; it is absolute only if the entire population to be protected has been vaccinated. Due to the costs of mass vaccination, it is practiced for infectious diseases with high mobility and / or mortality, and against which no other prophylactic methods exist. Vaccinotherapy, on the other hand, is a type of vaccination carried out for therapeutic purposes against a disease, when this is already in progress, with the aim of strengthening the antibodies present in the body. Vaccination is a fundamental Public Health intervention, which aims to protect both the individual and the community from serious or life-threatening diseases, also through "herd immunity" mechanisms. Some vaccinations have been made mandatory by law, while others are assiduously recommended by local doctors. To make vaccinations more effective, chronological sequences are drawn up, summarized in the so-called "vaccination calendars", prepared by the national health authorities, and which mainly concern vaccinations in the pediatric field. Prophylactic vaccinations are a fundamental preventive measure for the health of the child, and in recent decades they have made it possible to significantly reduce both the number of serious diseases, the mortality of vaccinated children and the forms of childhood disabilities in the world. The occasional renunciation of some parents to vaccinations recommended for their children, often on the basis of misleading pseudoscientific information or erroneous beliefs about the real safety of vaccines, has led in recent years to a resumption of the incidence of serious or potentially fatal diseases ( that would be easily preventable by simple vaccinations) in thousands of children. The vaccines currently available are extremely safe and, over the years, doctors and researchers have made them more and more effective.