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Each year, an estimated 46,000 adults die from complications of influenza, invasive pneumococcal disease, and hepatitis B infection. Are your immunizations up to date? |
No one likes to get shots. But immunizations are critical to improving people’s health and well-being the world over – from infants to senior citizens. In fact immunization, or vaccination, is one of the major public health triumphs of the 20th century. Thanks to immunization, smallpox has been completely eliminated. The threat of polio is close to being eradicated. Measles has been virtually eliminated from the western hemisphere, and rubella should soon follow.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through its National Immunization Program (NIP), is committed to focusing on national efforts, and assisting in global efforts, to prevent disease by providing public health leadership on vaccination issues.
In the United States, vaccines have reduced or eliminated many infectious diseases that once routinely killed or harmed many infants, children and adults. However, viruses and bacteria that cause vaccine-preventable disease and death still exist and can be passed on to people who aren’t protected by vaccines.
Fortunately, childhood immunization levels in the United States are at or near record highs, and the number of cases of vaccine-preventable diseases is at or near record lows. However, continued vigilance is still needed. Every day in the United States 11,000 babies are born who must be vaccinated throughout childhood. And many children still do not receive newer vaccines such as Varicella (chicken pox) and Hepatitis B. CDC’s Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule is continually evaluated to ensure the highest level of effectiveness, efficiency and safety.
One of the greatest public health challenges is making adults aware of the importance of vaccination beyond childhood. Some adults assume that the vaccines they received as children will protect them for the rest of their lives. Generally that’s true, but some adults were never vaccinated as children, and newer vaccines weren’t yet available. In addition immunity can begin to fade over time – as people age, they become more susceptible to serious disease caused by common infections such as flu and pneumococcus.
In fact, each year approximately 46,000 adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases. Without adequate protection from vaccinations, diseases could quickly spread and cause epidemics. CDC advises all adults to be immunized, so that deadly diseases do not reemerge. CDC publishes the adult immunization schedule to help guide adults and their health care providers through the immunization process.
For most vaccine-preventable diseases, no country is ever truly free of a disease until all of it has been eradicated/eliminated from all countries. Working together, the nations of the world have wiped smallpox off the face of the earth. Experts hope that polio will go the same route, and that one day measles – currently at record low levels in the Western Hemisphere – will also be eradicated. CDC continues to play a leadership role in collaborating with global partners to help protect every person in every country from vaccine-preventable diseases.
The CDC Foundation supports a variety of programs that help CDC protect the public’s health through prevention. Learn more about the Foundation’s healthy lifestyles initiatives or learn how you can help support programs to improve the nation’s health.