Image Source: CDC

What is Vaccination?

Vaccination is a simple, safe, and effective way of protecting you against harmful diseases before you come into contact with them. It uses your body’s natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections and makes your immune system stronger.

Vaccines train your immune system to create antibodies, just as it does when it’s exposed to a disease. However, because vaccines contain only killed or weakened forms of germs like viruses or bacteria, they do not cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

Definition of Terms

Immunity: Protection from an infectious disease. If you are immune to a disease, you can be exposed to it without becoming infected.

Immunization: A process by which a person becomes protected against a disease through vaccination. This term is often used interchangeably with vaccination or inoculation.

Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.

Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.

Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD)

Fast Facts About Vaccines

• 4 million deaths worldwide are prevented by childhood vaccination every year.
• There are more than 25 safe and effective vaccines to prevent diseases, protect health throughout the lifespan, and help to prevent and mitigate outbreaks.
• By 2030, it is estimated that the measles vaccination can save nearly 19 million lives, and the Hepatitis B vaccination can save 14 million lives.
• Thanks to the polio vaccine, dedicated health care professionals, and parents who vaccinate their children on schedule, wild poliovirus has been eliminated in this country for more than 30 years.

Source: CDC, Global Immunization