It is still summer and kids can enjoy sunny days, vacation, and oversleep in the morning. Parents, on the other hand, have to be on alert about their children’s safety and health, regardless of the season. The summer vacation lasts for one more month, but before sending their children off to school, parents should make sure their kids get vaccines.
Doctors and officials advise parents not to underestimate vaccines for children. The advice is available for children of all ages that go to school, be it kinder garden, high school or university. The announcement has been made public now so that parents take their time in order to fulfill the requirement by the time school starts, in September.
Schools may have specific requirements regarding the type of vaccine for kids institutionalized there. Parents are asked to consult school headmasters or the health department on this important matter, so that they should know for sure what type of shot their children receive and what does it prevent them from.
Authorities bring to parents’ attention the measles outbreak in 2014 (668 patients have been monitored by the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases). What they are trying to prevent now by these compulsory vaccines is the spreading of a whooping cough (pertussis) and other contagious disease of this kind, which can easily be passed from one individual to another, especially in places such as schools.
Only this year, 6.000 cases of pertussis have been registered by the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in the United States and even in countries outside the border (such as Puerto Rico). The wisest thing parents can do is take their children to the closest clinic: vaccines reduce the risk of getting the disease and, if contracted, the child won’t be severely affected.
Not getting the compulsory vaccines endangers the members of the family, as well as the members of the community.
At young age (before turning six), children are supposed to have several vaccines, which help them keep their immune system safe and to develop properly.
There is a list of compulsory vaccines, specific for age groups. Young pupils need to have their shots against measles, chicken pox, pertussis, polio, meningitis, hepatitis A, and pneumonia, among others. Teenagers are assigned other type of vaccines, against human papillomavirus, pertussis, influenza, diphtheria. They are supposed to be already protected against infancy diseases, but, if not, they should solve that.
Doctors Lisa Berry knows that this is not always the case:
“Only 39.7 percent of adolescent girls and 21.6 percent of adolescent boys have received all three recommended doses of the vaccine. Vaccination rates in the U.S. are much lower than in other developed countries.”
Image source: Wikipedia
