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As the school year approaches, so does vaccination season

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Doctors warn parents that choosing not to vaccinate their children leaves them vulnerable to serious illnesses.
Courtesy of Getty Images
Vaccines for children Vaccines are the safest, best-studied and most effective medications that exist, according to Kaiser Permanente. There are vaccines recommended for children throughout their development, including the following: Chickenpox Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis Haemophilus Influenza b Hepatitis A Hepatitis B Human papillomavirus Influenza Measles, mumps and rubella Meningococcal conjugate Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine

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Doctors say children should get all recommended vaccinations before the first day of school

Written By Lauren Glendenning
Brought to you by Kaiser Permanente

As the school year approaches and parents think about whether to vaccinate their children, the science and medical communities have one resounding message: choose to vaccinate.

“Vaccines are not considered to be dangerous. The American Academy of pediatrics recommends children be immunized against 16 diseases,” said Dr. Patricia Dietzgen, Family Medicine Physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Frisco Medical Offices.

While a small study once suggested that the MMR vaccine — used to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella — could lead to autism, Dietzgen said it was later retracted by its author.

“Vaccines have not been shown to contribute to autism,” she said.

Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating infection, causing the immune system to develop the same response to a real infection so the body can fight the disease in the future, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Choosing to not vaccinate has much larger health implications on the national and global population.

While many vaccine-preventable diseases are rare in the United States, they can be brought into the country and put unvaccinated children at risk, according to the CDC.

“It’s a small world; disease travels very easily,” Dietzgen said. “If people stop vaccinating, serious disease will rapidly return, putting many people at unnecessary risk. Due to a concerted effort, not just in the U.S. but worldwide, we have been able to lessen the frequency and severity of life threatening illness.”

Risks are minor

In addition to the retracted study about the MMR vaccine causing autism, there also are no scientific studies that show children can’t tolerate vaccines at such early ages.

Dr. Shannon Garton, Family Medicine Physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Edwards Medical Offices, said some of the common reasons parents don’t want to vaccinate their children is that the diseases are rare in this country, but she said that argument “simply testifies to the fact that vaccines are effective.”

Vaccines can cause minor side effects such as redness and swelling where the shot was given, but often go away in a few days, according to the CDC.

“Leaving a child unimmunized makes them more vulnerable to catching serious illness,” Dietzgen said. “We forget that not that long ago, children died from whooping cough, measles, meningitis, or were left with serious crippling effects. These are now rare thanks to immunizations, but they have not been eradicated.”

Before a vaccine is approved by the FDA, “results of studies on safety and effectiveness of the vaccine are evaluated by highly trained FDA scientists and doctors,” according to the CDC’s website. “FDA also inspects the sites where vaccines are made to make sure they follow strict manufacturing guidelines.”

Sticking to a plan

Vaccination scheduling is carefully planned to coincide with the time in which the body will mount an immune response to the vaccine, as well as the earliest possible time the vaccine can safely protect children from diseases, Dietzgen said.

“We build immunity in phases,” she said.

As children get older, there may be a wider window of when a vaccination is due, but Garton recommends getting them done in the fall when flu shots are also available.

In addition to vaccinating, Dietzgen said children should try to stay healthy during the school year by washing their hands frequently and practicing good hygiene. If a child shows symptoms of illness, parents should keep them home from school to protect other children, Garton said.

“We are all in this together, so give the gift of health and do not send your sick child to school,” she said.


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