Do vaccines work?

Yes: Absolutely! the world is free of smallpox that at once was a devastating disease. Polio is almost completely gone. It wasn't long ago, when families lived in fear of these diseases prematurely taking their children away from them. Almost all of today's vaccines are dead and cannot cause the disease themselves, do not contain mercury and ultimately protect your child.

Antibodies: Your body produces antibodies against the killed or live virus, so if exposed to that illness, then the body can "recognize" that they have seen it before, so you won't get sick.

Yes: Vaccination programs are one of the biggest success stories in medicine in terms of impact on health and mortality rates. Vaccinations have wiped out smallpox, reduced global polio by 99%, and are estimated to save 2 million lives every year from death secondary to preventable infectious disease. Few if any medications can claim such success.

Induce immunity: Vaccines provide immunity to infection without having to get sick first. Example: haemophilus influenzae (h. Flu) is a bacteria that causes meningitis. H. Flu vaccine shows polysaccharide (sugar) pieces of h. Flu to a child's immune system tied to a protein which helps the young immune system "see" the germ and make antibodies against it. If infection occurs, those antibodies prevent illness.

Absolutely and Safe: In addition to my colleagues answers, a recent study estimated over 100 million cases of disease have been prevented by vaccines. The documented improvement in the United States is 98-99% of cases that would have been caused by vaccine preventable diseases have been prevented.

Vaccines: From the CDC: Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection, but this "imitation" infection does not cause illness. It does, however, cause the immune system to develop the same response as it does to a real infection so the body can recognize and fight the vaccine-preventable disease in the future. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/vaccine-decision/prevent-diseases.html