Immunization Awareness Week, Have You Had All Your Shots?

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C.- Today marks the start of National Immunization Awareness  Week and the Province is  putting out a call for adults to check to see if they are up to date with vaccinations.  

One hundred years ago, infectious diseases were the leading cause of death worldwide. Today, as a result of immunization programs in Canada, infectious diseases cause less than five per cent of all deaths nationwide.

"The measles outbreak that we are experiencing throughout BC right now is largely affecting unimmunized people, and more than half of our cases are in adults." says Dr. Monika Naus, Director of Immunization at the BC Centre for
Disease Control. "It's important to maintain high immunization rates so we don't see vaccine-preventable diseases come back."

Being fully up-to-date with all of your shots is not only the best way to safeguard yourself, but it also helps protect the entire community.

"If you don't have a record of immunization or if your record indicates you're not up to date, call your public health nurse or doctor and find out whether you need to be immunized," says Naus. "For example, for measles protection, everyone born after 1956 needs two doses of measles vaccine, which is given as measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine."

While many vaccines given to children provide lifelong protection, that's not the case for diseases such as tetanus (lockjaw) and diphtheria for which adults require booster shots in order to maintain immunity. Immunization is also important for adults who were not adequately vaccinated as children, as they may be at risk of infection from other vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, tetanus is completely preventable in BC; adults should get a booster shot of the Td (tetanus-diphtheria) vaccine every 10 years.

The current BC immunization schedule includes vaccines that can protect all British Columbians against 14 infectious diseases: diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, Haemophilus influenzae b, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal
disease, pneumococcal disease, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox and influenza. BC also publicly funds a vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) that is offered to girls in grades 6 and 9.

For more information  visit www.immunizebc.ca or www.bccdc.ca.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us