By Cynthia Morrow, MD, MPH
This week is National Immunization Awareness Week (April 25-April 30). Vaccines, cited as one of the greatest public health interventions, have long been recognized as the safest and most powerful, successful and cost-effective public health tools available to prevent infectious disease and death from those diseases. This week provides us the opportunity to reflect on and be thankful for our routine childhood vaccines as well as the more recent development and distribution of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
It’s easy to think that vaccine preventable diseases, such as measles or chickenpox, no longer exist; however, most vaccine preventable diseases still exist somewhere in the world and are just an airplane ride away from the United States. All parents should take this moment to make certain their children are caught up on routine immunizations that shield them against 14 childhood diseases like tetanus, polio, and diphtheria.
