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Doha: The World Immunization Week is marked each year in April and emphasizes the benefits and importance of vaccines for people around the world.
Primary Health Care Corporation provides advice and guidance to society members, representing the first line of defense. The vaccine developers, providers, and recipients are heroes working to improve health and wellbeing of everyone, everywhere.
Dr Fahid Sheikhan, a Community Medicine Consultant at the Vaccinations and Communicable Disease (CDC) at PHCC, defines vaccine as a biological preparation that boosts immunity against a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future. More importantly, vaccines strengthen the immune system and do not cause diseases that people are vaccinated against.
Immunization is very effective in preventing diseases: it prevents 2-3 million deaths every year worldwide. Globally, for instance, measles deaths have decreased by 84% in recent years. Immunization prevents diseases and disabilities, including diphtheria, polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), and pneumonia among others.
Immunization is very safe and protects future generations. In the past, the world suffered from smallpox, killing millions of people; however, it was eradicated from the world in 1979.
At the local level, Qatar has been polio-free since the 1990s, and the rates of diseases have been greatly reduced, such as polio, and measles among others.
The COVID-19 spread around the world as there is currently no vaccine available to protect against it. The diseases that can be protected against by vaccines cause costly effects, including doctor visits and hospital treatment. Sick children waste their parents’ working time, which leads to economic effects on societies.
Immunization is given to protect people of all ages against disease, and children receive their vaccine doses according to the national vaccination schedule that starts from birth and continues even after school. The vaccination schedule is reviewed by a joint medical committee that makes adjustments to it according to what is recommended globally.
The elderly and cases with chronic diseases are advised to take vaccines against influenza and pneumococcal, as well as travelers to prevent diseases prevalent in some countries, such as typhoid, meninges, yellow fever, and influenza among others.
PHCC provides the highest standards of health care services accessible to all through health center clinics. In spite of the COVID–19 pandemic, children must receive vaccines according to the specified schedule. Refusal to vaccinate will lead to the spread of other diseases, which constitutes a threat to public health.
