Vaccines are a global health and development success story. They remain the most safe, simple and effective way of preventing a wide range of dangerous diseases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) attribute vaccines to saving millions of lives around the world each year!

Vaccination and immunisation go hand in hand. Vaccines help prevent various infectious diseases by training your natural immune system in order to be able to fight off the disease when you come into contact.

Vaccines usually consist of small microorganisms like bacteria or virus in a live, weakened, or killed state, or their components. When this preparation is injected into the body, your immune system is activated and produces antibodies specific to the disease. Once your immune system has these antibodies, they can remain in the body for many years or a lifetime, in some cases, to provide you with immunity.

Just like any other medicine or procedure, vaccines cannot be 100% safe and effective for every person. This is because our bodies are different and so will be our responses be. Although side effects like low grade fever and soreness are common, the incidence of major reactions are very rare (~1 in 100,000).

Although recently there has been some concerns with the use of vaccines, mostly due to conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine individuals without any expert knowledge, they remain very safe, extremely effective and trusted.