August 21, 2023- When fall flu season inevitably comes around, doctors reiterate that patients should receive a vaccination to protect themselves and others. Vaccines provide disease immunity to the individual and also the community at whole by preventing transmissible infectious diseases.
August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM), held to observe the importance of population-wide vaccination. According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and Voices for Vaccines, among U.S. children vaccinated in the last 20 years, vaccines will prevent 21 million hospitalizations and more than 700,000 deaths.
“For people living across the nation, it is important to know that vaccines are the best way to prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and even death from infectious diseases. Vaccination is essential to creating communities of immunity and protecting vulnerable people who can’t get vaccinated,” said American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) President Dr. Tochi Iroku-Malize.
The AAFP and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) develop recommendations for vaccinations and provide age group specific immunization schedules to the population each year.
Read more in the latest issue of Repertoire Magazine.