The goal of public health is to prevent disease. It’s much easier and more cost-effective to prevent a disease than to treat it.
child vaccination is the most effective public health intervention. The primary benefit of
vaccination is that it prevents disease and confers immunity. Vaccination protects the people
we care about; it is cost-effective and saves lives. Vaccination is not just a personal choice. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children expose the entire family and community to the risk of disease outbreaks.
Immunizations protect us from serious diseases and also prevent the spread of those diseases to others. Over the years immunizations have thwarted epidemics of once common infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough. And because of immunizations we’ve seen the near eradication of others, such as polio and smallpox.
According to the World Health Organisation, immunization prevents between two and three million deaths around the world, annually. When you vaccinate a child against a disease, you teach the immune system by mimicking a natural infection. The body cannot tell that the vaccine virus is weakened, and it engulfs the virus as if it were dangerous. It then creates antibodies to fight the disease, quickly clearing the virus. What remains is a series of cells designed to fight against future infection. Should your child come into contact with the disease for real, their immune system is able to respond effectively, preventing the disease developing or greatly reducing its severity.
Make the right decision today.
| AGE | DISEASE PROTECTED AGAINST | VACCINE GIVEN | SITE |
| AT birth | Hepatitis B
Polio
Tuberculosis |
HPV 1 (Hepatitis B vaccine)
OPV 0 (Oral polio vaccine)
BCG (Bacilli Calmette Guerin- tuberculosis vaccine) |
Upper part of the Thigh
Oral
Upper left arm |
| 6 weeks | Polio
DPT, Hepatitis B, HIB
Rotavirus
Otitis media and pneumonia
|
OPV 1
Pentavalent 1
Rotarix 1
Synoflorix 1 or Prevener 13 |
Oral
Right Upper part of the thigh Oral
Left upper part of the thigh
|
| 10 weeks | Polio
DPT, Hepatitis B, HIB
Rotavirus
Otitis media and pneumonia
|
OPV 2
Pentavalent 2
Rotarix 2
Synoflorix 2 or Prevener 13 |
Oral
Right Upper part of the thigh Oral
Left upper part of the thigh
|
| 14 weeks | Polio
DPT, Hepatitis B, HIB
Otitis media and pneumonia
|
OPV 3
Pentavalent 3
Synoflorix 3 or Prevener 13 |
Oral
Right Upper part of the thigh
Left upper part of the thigh
|
| 6 months | Vitamin A deficiency
|
Ist dose of vitamin A | oral |
| 9 months | Measles 1
Yellow fever |
Measles vaccine
Yellow fever vaccine |
Right or left upper arm
Right or left upper arm |
| 12 to 18 months |
|
DTap-IPV-Hib4
measles |
Left upper am
Right upper arm |
| 18 months onward | Vaccination to be given is usually announced | ||