What do “Back-to-School" Computers Have in Common with Health Education and Health Protection?

Abstract

How to increase immunization levels in communities is a recurrent problem associated with missed opportunities. As communities gear-up for Back to School, health educators may encourage people to update their child, adolescent, and adult immunizations. Human herd immunity can protect communities from spread of infection, and an analogy is presented with “herd immunity for personal computers.” Both computer and biological viruses spread faster when a large portion of the population is unprotected. Just as individuals should receive immunization shots to protect self and families; computer systems can be protected against nasty computer code by using current anti-virus programs to limit the spread of viruses, worms, and Trojan horses from one computer to another. How much more would individuals rather receive timely shots that help to preserve health? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.