Why is vaccination important?
Vaccinations prevent your child from getting serious diseases that can interfere with normal growth and development, and even cause severe injury and death. Babies and children have young immune systems and are at special risk of getting certain diseases caused by germs (bacteria and viruses).
What are vaccines made of?
Germs (bacteria and viruses) are grown in labs (kind of like germ farms), and then either killed or weakened (still alive but very weak). These killed or weakened germs make up vaccines, and are injected into our bodies with needles.
How do vaccines work?
When vaccines enter our bodies, our immune systems react and create antibodies to attack and fight the vaccine (killed and weakened germs). Antibodies are special proteins made by our immune systems that attack germs when they enter our bodies and try to make us sick. When we are later exposed to the actual disease, our bodies will have existing antibodies that fight the disease and keep us from becoming ill.