Running head: POLICY, POLITIC, AND GLOBAL HEALTH
C159
National Vaccination and Immunization Policy
Western Governors University
C159: Policy, Politics, and Global Health Trends
National Vaccination and Immunization Policy
For approximately twenty years, vaccine preventable diseases that were once considered eradicated are now making news again around the country due to a decrease in vaccinations across life spans. While traveling abroad has been cited as one of the reasons contributing to the spread of measles in the United States, unvaccinated communities have been a major causative factor propelling the spread of measles. However, measles is not the only preventable and communicable disease that is spreading across the nation due to low vaccination rates; Diseases such as influenza, human papillomavirus, pneumococcal, varicella, and pertussis are among a few diseases that are preventable through vaccination and yet, they are spreading in communities
across the nation. Such diseases are considered vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccine-
preventable diseases account for 50,000 to 90,000 adult deaths per year in the United States.
The development of vaccines has been invaluable to global welfare. For example, childhood immunization prevents 2 million to 3 million deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that 16 diseases are under control or considered eradicated by vaccination. In the United States, among children within a recent 20-year birth cohort, vaccination will prevent an estimated 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths (CDC, 2015 and Kukielka, Szwed, & Tran, 2018). POLICY, POLITIC, AND GLOBAL HEALTH 2
“From a financial burden perspective, this results in a net savings of $295 billion in direct costs and 1.38 trillion in total societal costs”, according to a 2014 CDC report (Kukielka, Szwed, & Tran, 2018). From smallpox to chicken pox, our nation has successfully protected Americans of all ages from deadly infectious diseases. In addition to saving lives, vaccines have major unintended consequences: cost savings. By preventing serious infectious diseases, vaccines also prevent us from spending large amounts of money on treating diseases and complications from preventable illnesses.
Policy Proposal The National Vaccination and Immunization Policy will ensure that people across lifespans living in the United States have immunity to communicable and infectious diseases. “Immunity is the ability of the human body to tolerate the presence of material indigenous to the body, and to eliminate foreign material. This discriminatory ability provides protection from infectious disease, since most microbes are identified as foreign by the immune system” (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). At large this policy would guarantee public funding for immunizations and mandate vaccination across lifespans. This national policy would also make it a misdemeanor to knowingly decline immunizations and vaccinations when no allergy or
life-threatening issue exists. Immunization and vaccination have been proven to be the most effective method of preventing over sixteen infectious diseases. Prevention of communicable and infectious diseases serves as a priority in the interest of public health and has shown to be more cost effective than treatment and cure. Contrary to anti-vaccination beliefs, vaccines are generally safe and rarely are there serious adverse reactions to vaccinations. Due to the increase in immunization programs across the country over the past several decades, the number of infectious diseases that previously claimed millions of lives each year has drastically been POLICY, POLITIC, AND GLOBAL HEALTH 3
reduced. “Vaccines given to children born between 1994-2016 will prevent an estimated 381 million illnesses, 24.5 million hospitalizations, 855,000 deaths, and $1.65 trillion in total societal
costs” (Kukielka, Szwed, & Tran, 2018).
A1. Public Policy Issue
Though immunization rates have improved, immunization rates have not yet reached the public health objective of 90 percent coverage. The U.S. national average for immunization is greater than 70 percent, substantial variation in immunization rates occurs between states as well as within each state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) classify more than two dozen diseases as vaccine-preventable or potentially preventable. Despite having vaccines to prevent these diseases from spreading, the prevalence of these diseases are increasing during this current year. In the United States, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases often occur as a result of no immunization or under immunization among children and adults, as well as from exposure to infections brought into the country by unvaccinated travelers who visit and return from high-risk or endemic regions (CDC, 2015).
Few measures in public health can compare with the impact of vaccines. Vaccinations have reduced disease, disability and death from a variety of infectious diseases. They have been an invaluable tool for preventative medical care against disease as well. In the United States, for example, maternal vaccines protect both mothers and babies, before they are born and during the first few months of life. It is also recommended that children should be vaccinated against 16 diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights the impact in the United States of immunization against nine vaccine-preventable diseases, including smallpox and a complication of one of those diseases, congenital rubella syndrome. According to data
