Understanding vaccination

Understanding vaccination

Description

Why get vaccinated

How vaccination works

Effectiveness of vaccination

Safety of vaccination

Description

Vaccination is the best way to protect yourself and others from certain diseases.

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Vaccines protect us from diseases that can have serious consequences and even cause death. Some of these diseases have no medical treatment. By getting vaccinated, we also avoid transmitting contagious diseases.

In Quebec, vaccination is not compulsory, but it is strongly recommended. The vast majority of people agree to get vaccinated.

Make sure your vaccination is always up to date. Consult the Quebec Immunization Program page for the procedure to get vaccinated.

Why get vaccinated

To protect yourself and avoid the risks and complications related to diseases

To protect those around you

To prevent the recurrence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases

The importance of vaccination

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To protect yourself and avoid the risks and complications related to diseases

Vaccine-preventable diseases cause suffering, complications, and sequelae. They can even cause death. Catching certain diseases naturally protects us from these diseases afterward, as vaccines do. However, letting nature go has far too great a health risk. Here are some examples :

Meningococcal disease, which is responsible for meningitis, is a serious disease. It can cause permanent brain damage and cause death in 10 to 15% of cases.

Chickenpox is a common disease that is mostly harmless. However, it can cause complications such as skin infections, ear infections, and pneumonia. The varicella vaccination program was implemented in Quebec in 2006. In the 6 years that followed, hospitalizations for complications from chickenpox decreased by 85%.

A contagious disease like measles is very easily spread from one person to another. This disease can be serious or even lead to death in people who are more likely to develop complications from measles. For example, very young children, people with weakened immune systems or pregnant women are more vulnerable to complications from measles. To prevent this disease from spreading in the population, at least 95% of people must be vaccinated.

. For example, there is a risk of getting encephalitis, that is, inflammation of the brain, after getting the measles vaccine. However, this risk is not even 1 in 1 million cases. This risk increases to 1 in 1,000 cases when a person gets measles.

To protect those around you

People who are vaccinated against a disease cannot get it. Therefore, they also cannot pass it on to others. This is how they protect people who have not received the vaccine.

It is therefore important to get vaccinated to protect others. In fact, some people cannot receive vaccines for one of the following reasons:

an allergy to the content of certain vaccines;

their age;

their health, such as a weakened immune system.

In addition, other people remain inadequately protected even if they are vaccinated.

So there will always be people who are not protected against illness. This is why as many people as possible need to be vaccinated, to prevent the spread of disease and to protect the entire population.

To prevent the recurrence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases

 If there were no more vaccines, infectious diseases would recur quickly and spread among the population.. For example, measles outbreaks occurred in 2015 in the United States and Canada because a number of people were not vaccinated.

Even if certain infectious diseases have become rare in Quebec, vaccine-preventable diseases are still present with us. For example, tetanus will continue to exist because it is caused by a bacteria that lives in the soil.

In addition, certain preventable diseases