School Starts Soon-Is Your Child Fully Vaccinated?

Make sure that your children are up-to-date on vaccines before sending them back to school. School-age children, from preschoolers to college students, need vaccines. Making sure that children receive all their vaccinations on time is one of the most important things you can do as a parent to ensure your children’s long-term health as well as the health of friends, classmates, and others in your community. CDC has online resources and tools to help parents and doctors make sure all kids are up to date on recommended vaccines and protected from serious diseases. Get your children to the doctor if you discover they need vaccines to protect them against serious diseases. What All Parents Need to Know To keep children in schools healthy, your state may require children going to school to be vaccinated against certain diseases, such as pertussis (whooping cough). If you’re unsure of your state’s school requirements, now is the time to check with your child’s doctor, your child’s school, or your health department. That way, your child can get any needed vaccines before the back-to-school rush. Disease Outbreaks Still Happen It’s true that some vaccine-preventable diseases have become very rare thanks to vaccines. However, cases and outbreaks still happen. The United States experienced a record number of measles cases during 2014, with 668 cases from 27 states reported to CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). This is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000. From January 2 to July 22, 2016, there have been 48 cases of measles reported in the United States. Read more here.