Immunizations
I chose this public health measure because I work in the early childhood field and for the past few years, I have seen an increase in the number of children that don’t receive vaccinations. Some parents believe that getting their child vaccinated is one of the most important things you can do for them, others beg to differ. With the rise of vaccine preventable diseases, a lot of early childhood programs are not accepting any kids that aren’t immunized, regardless of obtaining an exemption from immunizations from the state.
Immunizations in India
India has the largest number of births in the world and the largest number of children that aren’t immunized. Some of the challenges to immunization include limited capacities of staff, particularly in poor-performing states and at the field level, and gaps in key areas such as predicting demand, logistics and cold chain management, which result in high wastage rates. India also still lacks a robust system to track vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination coverage varies considerably from state to state, with the lowest rates in India’s large central states. Differences in uptake are geographical, regional, rural-urban, poor-rich and gender-related. On average, girls receive fewer immunizations than boys and higher birth order infants have lower vaccination coverage (UNICEF).
Immunization. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2020, from http://unicef.in/whatwedo/3/immunization
Learning is Fun and Educational 
Thank you for this information on vaccines, I feel like this is such a popular topic that many people fight over. I personally believe that every child should get vaccinated, they are there for a reason. I understand people disagree with this, but I think that they should look at other places that don’t vaccinate and compare them. Thank you for talking about this touchy subject.
Mary Hipp
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Latoya,
Thanks for the insight on immunizations and the difficulties in India regarding them. I noticed you talked about gender being a factor as to who gets immunizations. Do you have any theories as to why that might be? A part of me feels like it lies within certain gender roles as the man needs more immunizations because he must go out into the world and provide for the family, while the woman is at home because they are providing for the children and do not need to go out into the world. Just something I started thinking about while reading your post!
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