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Immunization
and pregnant women are among the most vulnerable to serious complications. The flu strain changes from year to year, meaning a new vaccine is necessary for each season. Most healthy kids can receive a nasal spray.
Must 11-year-olds gets three shots for HPV? Is it ok to wait until they’re older? HPV (human papilloma virus) is a very common virus affecting nearly 80 million people in the U.S. (one in four). The HPV infection can cause reproductive cancers as well as genital warts. It’s important to be vaccinated early before any risk of exposure to the virus. Vaccination for HPV is recommended for both girls and boys. Your child should also have a tetanus shot (Tdap), which protects against whooping cough and diphtheria. The third vaccination is for meningococ- cal meningitis, bacteria that infect the brain and spinal cord and are often fatal. It’s becoming increasingly popular to customize a child’s vaccination, randomly choosing to alter the recommended schedule by getting one or two vaccina- tions at a time. This is dangerous because it leaves children vulnerable to disease. These schedules are not recommended by the CDC or the AAP. Vaccines in the U.S. are held to the
strictest safety standards, and the CDC reports the safest, most effective supply in history. The process by which your pro- vider recommends vaccines is one that takes decades and many organizations
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It is important to be vaccinated against HPV before any risk of exposure
to accomplish. After ten or more years of clinical trials and FDA approval, vaccines are considered by the Advisory Commit- tee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the CDC. This is a group of medical and public health experts who develop rec- ommendations on vaccine use. The AAP considers the ACIP recommendations and issues provider recommendations, which are passed to consumers. Research on vaccines continues for decades after they are released to the market. The CDC also has a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in which any hint of a problem is thoroughly investigated. If you have questions or concerns
about vaccinations, talk to your child’s provider. You can also visit the CDC’s website:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/.
Jessica Peck, DNP, RN, CPNP-PC, CNE, CNL, is a PNP and Associate Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center. She has been practicing in pedi- atric primary care for more than 20 years.
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