COMMUNITY ARTICLE
August is Immunization Month by LT T. Jeremy Slocum USN, MSC, DPT Raising a child comes with many decisions. Some are a matter of taste, like what color to paint the nursery. Others are essential, especially when it comes to safety, like baby proofing your home for potential hazards. But what about the hazards that you can’t see and that can cause serious illness, disability or even death to young children? Immunizations give you the power to protect your baby from 14 serious childhood diseases.
discomfort or tenderness at the injection
Protecting your child’s health and safety is very important to you. That’s why most parents choose immunization. Nothing protects your babies better from 14 serious childhood diseases. Choose to immunize, it is a powerful defense that is safe, proven and effective. Diseases don’t stop at the border, and many can spread easily. You may have never seen a case of polio or diphtheria, but they still occur in other countries. All it takes is a plane ride for these diseases to arrive in your community.
recommendations from the Advisor y
SERIOUS DISEASES ARE STILL OUT THERE
recommended schedule. Not receiving
Reducing and eliminating the diseases that vaccines prevent is one of the top achievements in the history of public health. Because of this success, most young parents have never seen the devastating effects that diseases like polio, measles, or whooping cough (pertussis) can have on a family or community. It’s easy to think of these as diseases that only existed in the past, but they still exist today. Children can and do still get some of these diseases. In fact, when the vaccination rates drop in a community, it’s not uncommon to have an outbreak. For example, preliminary data for 2012 show that more than 41,000 cases of whooping cough were reported in the United States. During this time, 18 deaths were reported; the majority of these deaths were in children younger than 3 months of age (to learn more about recent outbreaks of pertussis visit www.cdc.gov/pertussis/ outbreaks.html#activity).
VACCINES ARE SAFE The United States cur rently has the safest, most effective vaccine supply in its history. Before a vaccine is approved and g iven to ch i ldren, it is tested extensively. Scient ist s and medical professionals carefully evaluate all the available information about the vaccine to determine its safety and effectiveness. As new scientific information becomes available, vaccine recommendations are updated. Although there may be some
site, this is minor compared to the serious complications that can result from the diseases these vaccines prevent. Serious side effects from vaccines are very rare.
CHILDREN NEED PROTECTION EARLY The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sets the U.S. childhood i m mu n i z at ion s c he du le b a s e d on Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)- a group of medical and public health experts. This schedule is also approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The recommended childhood immunization schedule is designed to protect infants and children early in life, when they are most vulnerable. To be fully immunized, children need all doses of the vaccines according to the the full number of doses leaves a child vulnerable to catching serious diseases. It is important to your child’s health to be up to date on immunizations.
VACCINATION PROTECTS YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND COMMUNITY Getting your child vaccinated helps protect others in your community-like your neighbor who has cancer and cannot get certain vaccines, or your best friend’s newborn baby who is too young to be fully vaccinated. When everyone in a community who can gets vaccinated, it helps to prevent the spread of disease and can slow or stop an outbreak. Choosing to protect your child with vaccines is also a choice to help protect your family, friends, and neighbors.
GETTING VACCINATIONS WHILE ABOARD MCAS IWAKUNI Proof of vaccinations is required in order to have your child enrolled at MC Perry Schools, the Child Development Center or the School Aged Center. If you need a copy
CONTACTING YOUR BRANCH HEALTH MEDICAL CLINIC IWAKUNI: RELAY HEALTH: Our office is online! Relay Health uses a secure e-mail messaging system so you can communicate with us, for free! You can: • Consult your Doctor • Request / cancel appointments • Request medication refills • Request lab / test results • Send a note to our office To get started give us your name and e-mail address and we will send you an e-mail invitation. Or register yourself by going to www.relayhealth.com and clicking register. FACEBOOK: Search "Medical Home Port, Branch Health Clinic, Iwakuni" or go to facebook.com/IwakuniMedical REMINDERS: DOD and contract personnel must register in DEERS at Building 1 first, and then visit Patient Administration to register your insurance before being seen at the clinic. For after hours urgent issues please call the quarterdeck at 253-5572 (or 0827795572 from a cell phone), you will receive a call back within 15 minutes from the duty doctor.
of your child’s vaccination record, please stop at the Immunizations Office and we would be happy to assist. For more information about immunizations please talk to your doctor or visit www.cdc. gov/vaccines/parents/index.html M C C S I WA K U N I . C O M |
AUGUST 2014
35