Immunisation is a way of protecting your child against serious disease. Once children have been immunised their bodies can fight those diseases if they come into contact with them.
If a child is not immunised they will be at risk from catching the disease and will rely on other people immunising their children to avoid becoming infected.
There will always be some children who are left unprotected because:
they can not be immunised for medical reasons
they are too young to be immunised
they cannot get to the vaccine services
for a few, the vaccine doesn’t work.
However, if more people choose not to immunise their children, then the number of children at risk of catching to a disease will increase and outbreaks of the disease will occur.
The only time to stop immunising children is when a disease has been eradicated worldwide.
When every country had eliminated smallpox in 1979 for example, immunisation against the disease was stopped. It is hoped that polio will soon be eradicated and measles may follow.