MEDICAL SURFARI: TIMELY VACCINATIONS PREVENT DISEASES

America has come a long way in the past century in preventing death and disease in children. Disease and death from diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella and other infectious diseases are at or near record lows due to vaccination.

Vaccination has been one of the most successful disease prevention strategies in public health, and in some cases infectious diseases have been essentially eradicated. There have been no acquired cases of polio caused by wild poliovirus reported in the United States since 1979. These strides against disease are the remarkable success of the appropriate use of safe and effective vaccines.

National Infant Immunization Week begins Sunday. This is a time to emphasize the importance of timely vaccinations.

In fact, this is so important a state law has been enacted requiring children to be immunized by the time they enter school.

Are your children on schedule for their vaccinations? If you are uncertain, check with your family physician, nurse practitioner or your pediatrician.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced changes in the recommended childhood immunization schedule. These changes resulted from the recommendation to use inactivated polio virus vaccine (IPV) alone for routine childhood polio vaccination, to remove rotavirus vaccine from the schedule, and to use acellular pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines for all doses of pertussis vaccine series.

Further, hepatitis A vaccination is recommended for use in selected areas of the United States with high rates of hepatitis A. These recommendations for changes in the immunization schedule have also been reviewed and approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians.

If you are planning trips outside of the United States, some foreign countries require or recommend special vaccinations to provide protection against some of the indigenous diseases. This information can be obtained through the Centers for Disease Control well in advance of any planned travel.

There are few things that you can do for your children that are more important than vaccination. Keep a personalized vaccine record on each of your children and make certain they get their immunizations as close to the recommended time as possible.

As I have mentioned, this is of such high importance that in 1994 an entire week in April has been dedicated and declared "National Infant Immunization Week" to focus attention on the importance of proper immunization for infants and toddlers. Communities across the country will be active this week to increase the awareness of access to immunization services by expanding clinic hours. Look for these opportunities and be certain your children are on schedule for their vaccinations.

World Wide Web Resources

National Immunization Program

www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/niiw/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides up-to-date information on recommendation immunizations for children.

National Infant Immunization Week

www4.parentsplace.com/health/vaccines/gen/0%2C3375%2C12384%2C00.html

At this site, you can find your own Interactive Immunization Chart, which will help you create a printable, personalized vaccine record.