Ensuring a healthy future for infants, preteens, adults and the elderly is a matter of receiving timely vaccinations to protect the population against dangerous and sometimes deadly diseases and viruses, such as the flu, measles and pneumonia.

National Immunization Awareness Month is in August, and the month presents an annual opportunity to highlight the importance of immunization. It promotes the idea that vaccination against infectious diseases and immunization is fundamental for protecting public health.

Dr. Nancy Daisy Dodd, a pediatric in infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Euclid Medical Offices, spoke to Latin Post, sharing the importance of vaccination in the lives of young people as well as the elderly. With over 25 years of experience working with patients with serious infections and problems, she's able to confirm facts about vaccination, and the importance that infants receive immunization early on.

"The common thing I hear from people when I ask parents why they don't want to give their baby the vaccine, they say, 'It's too many shots, doc. I don't want my baby to hurt.' We have a number of parents and families, and they read somewhere that their child can get a vaccine periodically; they don't have to get them altogether. I really discourage that." said Dr. Dodd. "When they ask, 'When will the vaccine best benefit my child's immune system?' The answer is now. Pathologically, I think it's more dangerous to vaccinate child every time they come in."

According to Dr. Dodd, a child should feel at ease when visiting the doctor's office, but if he or she forced to be vaccinated each time they come into the office (rather than receiving them at once), it will create a phobia. It's best to vaccine children against numerous dangerous diseases at once to ensure their health and health of others. Before age 2, babies born in the U.S. need to be inoculated against 14 vaccine-preventable diseases.

"I've have had the opportunity to treat kids with measles, treat kids with chicken pox and treat child with polio, which shouldn't be seen in the U.S.," Dr. Dodd stated. "But all you need is for someone to migrate from somewhere that doesn't vaccinate, and that could lead to an outbreak, like in Disneyland. If an unvaccinated person encounters the public, they are a danger to the unvaccinated or those whose vaccinations have worn off, as it does with the elderly. Vaccines save lives." 

Beyond redness, a little induration and other localized reactions, it's unlikely that there will be adverse reactions to vaccines. Some believe that vaccines may cause autism, but Dr. Dodd assured that those trumped up findings couldn't be duplicated and the researcher who made that claim eventually recanted that study, admitting that research was fabricated.  Nonetheless, the results were lasting. Also, many later insisted that the miniscule amount of mercury added to vaccines lead to brain problems. When the mercury was removed, behavioral learning problems continued to rise.

Largely, Latino parents and patients tend to be respectful of what physicians say, according to Dr. Dodd. When she's encountered a parent who was extremely set in his or her way, she takes the time and makes the effort to reassure that patient. Often, it's the false information readily available on the internet and vocal and appealing actors and actresses adamantly against vaccinations patients that turns patients against the medical opinions of their doctors.

"I want to reinforce the message that vaccines save lives. I can't say that enough. It's not only saving, but it's saving people from the natural symptoms of diseases. Measles can cause death, and in certain individuals it can produce encephalitis, the swelling of the brain. Those individuals are basically left handicapped, and they end up being learning disabled, something that a little pinch could've prevented," said Dr. Dodd "Not only are we concerned about the kids, but we're concerned about the elderly, grandma, and grandpa. Little children bring germs to grandma and grandpa, who might be immunocompromised, and they might acquire an infection that could cost them their lives."