Why do people need vaccine?

Answer 1

MMR vaccine protects you against Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. You need 2-3 doses on the proper schedule to become immune. You should get a blood test (titer) to confirm that the shots worked and gave your body immunity (some people need more shots and a small few people never seem to "take" to the vaccine, especially the mumps part- also the mumps part can be spoiled by heat during storage).

Many healthcare workers, teachers, and other professionals are required to get this vaccine to protect themselves and others from these diseases.

MMR is a "trivalent" (3-in-one) vaccine against the following 3 diseases:

Measles is a rough disease that we don't see as much of anymore because of the success of vaccines- but it could come back if people stop taking the vaccine.

Mumps is less common these days but there was a recent outbreak in New York City's Brooklyn area because groups of people stopped getting the vaccine for their kids. The mumps part of the vaccine can be spoiled by heat, so if the vaccine was not refrigerated properly, it can fail- while the other two parts are still effective. Also some people just never "seroconvert" (get immunity from the vaccine) or need a 3rd or 4th dose to obtain immunity. This can be frustrating because they require multiple blood tests to ensure that they are immune.

Rubella is a disease that isn't terribly serious except for the fact that when pregnant women get it, their babies usually cannot survive the infection, or the babies brains are severely injured for the rest of their lives. So this vaccine is important for all of us to get so that women won't have a large chance of getting exposed during pregnancy.

All of these diseases are pretty harsh, and can be deadly in young, elderly, weak, ill, or medicated people (on steroids or other drugs that weaken the immune system).