Vaccinations have come a long way from the measles shot you got at the doctor’s office. Today, children are also vaccinated against hepatitis, chickenpox, rotavirus, meningitis and other ravaging illnesses caused by invasive bacteria.
Vaccinations have come a long way from the measles shot you got at the doctor’s office.
Today, children are also vaccinated against hepatitis, chickenpox, rotavirus, meningitis and other ravaging illnesses caused by invasive bacteria. They’re even immunized to protect them from developing certain forms of cancer.
Adults, too, are benefiting from reformulated vaccines and new vaccination schedules that include seniors, pregnant women, workers in some at-risk jobs and everyone else.
If you haven’t been immunized since childhood against pertussis (commonly called whooping cough), for example, doctors recommend another pertussis vaccination. It turns out that immunity to that disease can wane as years pass.
So the question for this back-to-school season is no longer just about whether your child’s immunizations are up to date.
It’s about whether yours are, too.
Something for everyone
According to guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children should receive their first vaccination at birth for hepatitis B, which should be repeated between 1 and 2 months of age. Two months is also when the vaccinations for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and rotavirus are first administered, along with Hib and PCV vaccinations, which protected against lethal, invasive bacteria that can cause pneumonia, meningitis and other illnesses.
By the time they’re 6 years old, kids will have received multiples of most vaccinations in addition to being immunized against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox and hepatitis A.
At 11 or 12, children should receive three doses of the human papillomavirus vaccine to protect them from the virus and from other diseases, including cervical cancer in women, oral cancer in men and women, and other cancers that can develop from this sexually transmitted disease.
A diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus booster is given around the same age, along with a vaccine to ward off bacteria that can cause meningitis.
Vaccinations are sometimes called for throughout adulthood based on lifestyle or on-the-job or risk factors, health history and other considerations. Older adults can be vaccinated against shingles.
Pregnant women should receive a diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus booster before they give birth. And everyone should get a flu shot each year.
When doctors say “everyone,” they mean all people who do not have a health-related reason to not be immunized. An egg allergy might be a problem for the flu vaccine, for instance. Other than health reasons, though, doctors really do mean everyone for every immunization.
“Most people these days don’t have direct connections to these illnesses any more and they don’t realize the consequences,” said Dr. Robin Punsalan, a pediatrician at the new OSF Clinic in Byron.
But are immunizations safe?
“The link between autism and vaccines has been completely disproved,” said Punsalan, who talks often with parents about their concerns. “Yet I have seen multiple cases of pertussis this year. Most were in babies too young to be vaccinated who got it from older children who weren’t vaccinated.”
The CDC offers a complete listing of vaccines recommended for children and adults at cdc.gov/vaccines.