Vaccines, vaccinations and immunizations – what are they?
A vaccine produces immunity from disease and is usually administered by mouth, injection or aerosol. There are three ways vaccines are created, but the result is the same -- a weakening, or “attenuation,” of the pathogen so it may be used in a vaccine.
A vaccination is the injection of a weakened or killed pathogen that produces immunity against the organism. An immunization is the process by which a person becomes protected from a disease. Vaccines cause immunization. Also, some diseases, like measles or chicken pox, cause immunization after a bout of the illness.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), vaccines have led to a 95 percent drop in vaccine-preventable deaths. The CDC considers vaccines one of the top 10 greatest achievements of the 20th century. It is estimated that vaccinations prevented 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospital visits and 732,000 deaths in the past 20 years. And that translates to about $295 billion saved in direct costs, like hospital admittances and $1.3 trillion in societal costs.
But there are still barriers to vaccinations. "Lack of immunization due to low socioeconomic status, lack of access to health care — those still all pose real challenges," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "But you can fix the problem," Osterholm says, with better access.