Vaccines prevent infectious diseases and save lives!  To help raise awareness of the importance immunizations, August is National Immunization Awareness Month. In this post, we’ll look at benefits of staying up to date on vaccines and some things you can do to help raise awareness- helpful information links are provided!

The Benefits of Vaccines

The main benefit to vaccines is they help to prevent infections and outbreaks of some very harmful diseases. Many of these diseases carry risk of lifelong complications or even death.

Beyond protecting the immunized individual, vaccines help to protect others. There are some people that are unable to get vaccines due to health conditions and infants are too young to get some vaccinations so both rely on others being immunized to help protect them.

Raising Awareness

As a part of National Immunization Awareness Month, childcare providers can participate in raising awareness of the importance of vaccines. The following are tips to help raise awareness:

  • Clearly inform parents of the required vaccines for enrolling their child. Here is the link to the latest version of the Immunization Form:

https://www.health.state.mn.us/people/immunize/basics/imzform.pdf

  • Emphasize the importance of vaccines and encourage families to get the necessary immunizations. One way to promote this is to have materials available that raise vaccine awareness and remind parents of the immunization schedule. Here is the link to the 2019 Recommended Immunizations for Birth through 6 Years Old:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/downloads/parent-ver-sch-0-6yrs.pdf

  • Remind parents that vaccines are not just for children- updating immunizations is important throughout the life span. Here is the link to the Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/downloads/adult/adult-combined-schedule.pdf

  • Along with providing information about the role vaccines play in preventing illness, it’s important to emphasize the fact that vaccines are safe. Here is the link to Safety Information about Specific Vaccines:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/index.html

Immunizations are one part of public health that requires everyone to do their part. When immunization rates drop, it increases the risk of new outbreaks of disease. Use National Immunization Awareness Month as an opportunity to inform others and promote vaccination!