Infectious Diseases - Prevention Through Immunization

Many infectious diseases can be prevented by immunizations. According to the National Immunization Program of the CDC, there are fifteen diseases that can be prevented by vaccination and for which vaccinations are recommended. Some other diseases are preventable by vaccination, but vaccination is not recommended for everyone because the risk of contracting these diseases is not great enough to warrant widespread immunization. They include anthrax, meningococcal infection, rotavirus, and smallpox. (See Table 2.1 in Chapter 2 for the 2006 schedule of childhood and adolescent immunizations. Table 7.3 lists the 2005–06 adult immunization recommendations.) The fifteen vaccine-preventable diseases are as follows:

• Diphtheria—This bacterial infection causes potentially fatal respiratory infections that are treated with antibiotics. People diagnosed with diphtheria are isolated until cultures are negative to prevent the spread of the disease.

TABLE 7.3 Recommended adult immunization schedule, by vaccine and age group, October 2005–September 2006 "Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule, by Vaccine and Age Group, United States, October 2005–September 2006," in National Immunization Schedule, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 21, 2005, http://www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/adult-schedule-bw-pss.pdf (accessed January 17, 2006)

• Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib)—This bacterial infections causes respiratory infections and other diseases, such as meningitis.
• Hepatitis A—The virus is spread through fecal (stool) or oral routes, though it may also be transmitted via blood or sexual contact. Outbreaks usually occur from contaminated food and water; military workers, children in day care centers, and their care providers are considered at high risk.
• Hepatitis B—It is transmitted by blood, sexual contact, or from mother to unborn child; intravenous drug users, gay men, and health care workers are at high risk.

• Influenza (flu)—This viral infection produces sudden fever, muscle aches, and respiratory infection symptoms.
• Lyme disease—This bacterial disease is spread by infected ticks and produces fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes, and a distinctive circular skin rash. It may be treated with antibiotics or prevented by vaccine.
• Measles—This highly contagious viral disease produces red circular spots on the skin.
• Meningitis—Meningococcal vaccine was added to the 2005–06 schedule for select populations such as college students living in dormitories to prevent bacterial meningitis caused by infection with Neisseria meningitides. Meningitis means inflammation of the meninges—the covering of the brain and the spinal cord, and it is characterized by fever, vomiting, intense headache, and stiff neck.
• Mumps—This highly contagious viral disease produces swelling of the parotid glands.
• Pertussis (whooping cough)—This bacterial infection causes illness marked by spasms of coughing.
• Pneumococcal—This bacteria causes pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs.
• Poliomyelitis (polio)—A viral disease, polio causes fever, atrophy (wasting) of skeletal muscles, and paralysis.
• Rubella (German measles)—This viral infection is usually mild in children but can seriously harm an unborn child when contracted by a woman early in her pregnancy.
• Tetanus—Bacteria produce a toxin that causes victims to have painful muscle spasms.
• Varicella (chickenpox)—This is a highly contagious viral disease marked by skin eruptions of fluid-filled lesions that itch.

Until the 1960s, for example, poliomyelitis (polio) was a serious threat to children, adolescents, and even adults. After the discovery of vaccines to prevent this disease, massive worldwide immunization programs were carried out, and by 1994 an international health commission declared that indigenous (in-country) transmission of wild (not developed in laboratories or contained in vaccines) poliovirus had been stopped in the Western hemisphere. The last reported case of polio documented in the United States was 1979. A global polio eradication initiative is spearheaded by the WHO, Rotary International, the CDC, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), with the goal of global eradication by 2008.