Z pacjentem po angielsku (10)

Szczepienia ochronne są jednym z największych osiągnięć medycyny, tymczasem wielu rodziców boi się szczepić dzieci. Czy słusznie?

Vaccines

Back in the old days many people died young because of poor medical care. Most families had many children but only a few reached adulthood. With the introduction of vaccination, child survival rate increased greatly. The word vaccination comes from Latin (vacca) and means cow. The concept of vaccination first occurred to doctor Edward Jenner. He based his idea on the observations of a farmer who noticed that people infected with cowpox were rendered immune to smallpox.

Thanks to vaccination, illnesses such as tuberculosis, measles, German measles, chickenpox and scarlet fever have practically become eradicated. German measles was particularly dangerous for girls because rubella had catastrophic consequences if contracted during pregnancy. Vaccination is compulsory in many countries but some doctors oppose compulsory vaccination as sometimes inoculation can cause allergic reactions. Many parents make a hasty decision not to inoculate their children because vaccines have been wrongly linked to ADHD, some autoimmune diseases, food allergies and even autism. The myths spread by antivaccine campaigners are mostly wrong. This is beginning to have tragic consequences as there are more and more cases of illnesses which were considered gone a few years ago. To avoid problems some nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools refuse to admit children who have not been properly vaccinated.

Despite the benefits of vaccination childhood MMR vaccination rates fall. Mumps can be dangerous for boys as the illness can cause swelling of the testicles and infertility in adulthood. Mumps can also lead to viral meningitis in both sexes. We have almost forgotten that vaccinations have eradicated dis- eases such as whooping cough, polio and diphtheria. More than 500 000 people in Poland have hepatitis B, many of whom are unaware of this, therefore it is absolutely vital that children should be vaccinated against this disease.

The majority of vaccines are ad- ministered to prevent the illness ever occurring but in some cases it is advisable to administer the vaccine after potentially coming into contact with the disease. The rabies vaccine is given when an rabid dog bites a human being. The rabies vaccine is effective after the bite, provided it is given over a period of fourteen days together with immune globulin.

Unfortunately there are no vaccines for some serious diseases such as Ebola or Zika. The estimated cost of developing a new vaccine for one of those diseases is between $2.8 billion to $3.7 billion but it makes sense firstly because of the human factor to protect lives but also the financial cost. The SARS outbreak in East Asia cost the world $54 billion. The Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation provides vaccines for the poorest countries. Sadly, 1.5 million children die each year from diseases which could be easily prevented had they been vaccinated. This means that one child dies every 20 seconds. Thanks to financial help vaccines against pneumococcal disease, the main cause of pneumonia and rotavirus causing severe diarrhea are administered to children in poor regions. In order to fully eradicate vaccine preventable diseases it is necessary to generate awareness among health workers and parents.

Słowniczek:

to render – wydać
cowpox – ospa krowia
smallpox – ospa wietrzna
tuberculosis – gruźlica
measles – odra
German measles/rubella – różyczka
Chickenpox – ospa wietrzna
scarlet fever – szkarlatyna
to eradicate - wyeliminować
to contract – zarazić się
pregnancy – ciąża
compulsory – obowiązkowe
inoculation – szczepienie
nursery – żłobek
kindergarten – przedszkole
to admit – przyjąć
MMR – trójskładnikowa szczepionka przeciw odrze, śwince i różyczce (measles-mumps-rubella)
swelling – opuchnięcie
infertility – bezpłodność
meningitis – zapalenie opon mózgowych
whooping cough – krztusiec
polio – choroba Heinego-Medina
diphtheria – dyfteryt (błonica)
to administer – podawać
rabid dog – pies chory na wściekliznę
rabies – wścieklizna
billion – miliard
pneumonia – zapalenie płuc
diarrhea – biegunka
awareness – świadomość

Tekst opublikowany w numerze 3/2019 czasopisma Recepta