Vaccines are important to prevent contagious disease like polio, chicken pox and tetanus. In fact the vaccination process has saved millions of lives in the world, much more than that by pills and operations.

When an infectious agent attacks us, our immune system gets activated. Sometimes our immune system wins and the infection gets defeated. Sometimes it happens the other way. Especially when we don't have antibodies and cells (T lymphocytes) that can defend our bodies, the infectious agents can cause severe illness. What vaccination does is, it mounts an immune response (with antibodies and T cells) so that we are prepared BEFORE the infective agents attempts to take control. Therefore the infection is defeated.

It is vital that your child gets timely vaccination. There is a programme called EPI ( Extended Program of Immunization) by the Ministry of Health. The vaccines in the programme is listed below. There are private institutions that administer vaccines too.

It is crucial that your child gets vaccination in timely and orderly manner. Please keep good documentation of it for future reference.

Some vaccines are used in adults as well. e.g Hepatitis B vaccination. This prevents Hep B infection which is transmitted by blood and blood products and is thirty (30) times more infective than HIV ( the virus causing AIDS). Unfortunately there is no reliable and effective vaccine against HIV at the time of writing.

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