There's a lot of talk about the pros and cons of vaccination, so concerned parents can wind up spending a lot of time searching for factual, easy-to-understand information. These graphics can help you understand the impact of vaccines and make the choice to vaccinate your child.
Did you know a child is 100 times more likely to get struck by lightning than have a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine? See more stats that will help put the risks of vaccination in context.
It may seem like all the talk about vaccines has drowned out the benefits. But when you look at how far we've come at beating infectious disease, vaccines truly are amazing. Take a look at this graphic and see for yourself.
This story of a measles outbreak in Minnesota starts in February 2011 with a single unvaccinated child. It then spreads to the child's daycare center, family members, emergency room workers and more. See how the facts unfold.
Like seat belts and car seats, vaccines can be lifesavers. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said immunization is the most important public health act in history, after safe drinking water.16
In 1975, Japan stopped vaccinating against pertussis.17 Just 5 years later they went from having 373 cases of pertussis to 13,000 cases and 41 deaths.
There may be a lot of controversy out there, but you may be surprised by how other parents feel about vaccination.
Here in the United States, we are very fortunate to have high immunization rates. But it's important to remember we live in a global society. People and goods cross borders every day, and with them come another kind of frequent flyer: infectious disease germs. For example, from 2009 to 2010, 23 countries that had previously been certified "polio-free" were re-infected due to imported cases of the disease.22
Most people don't think of vaccines as a way to help prevent cancer. But some vaccines can. In fact, the first such vaccine was the Hep B vaccine. It prevents infection with Hep B virus, which is known to cause liver cancer.23
Whooping cough, medically known as pertussis, is still alive and well. In recent years pertussis cases have been climbing.25 In 2010, more than 21,000 cases of pertussis were reported to the CDC—a majority of them children and teens.26 But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Experts estimate that there are up to 3.3 million adult and adolescent cases of pertussis (whooping cough) each year in the United States, but because pertussis is less severe in teens and adults, many can get misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.56, 125 That's a problem because it's also 1 of the diseases kids usually get from adults, which is why it's so important to vaccinate ourselves.23
In fact, they prevent the deaths of an estimated 3 million children each year worldwide.27 Because of vaccines, people living in the United States today don't see some of the serious diseases, such as polio and diphtheria that used to harm or kill many children in this country. However, some of our parents or grandparents may well remember these feared diseases. It's important to keep vaccinating so these diseases don't come back.28,30
