August is National Immunization Awareness Month, and Dallas County Public Health reminds people of the importance of getting themselves and their children vaccinated.

Dallas County Public Health Program Manager Lisa Anderson says not having diseases like polio or the measles around anymore is something people may take for granted in this day and age. However, she emphasizes that in order to keep them away people still need to be immunized. “If you look back in history, like in the early 1900’s, it was a very precarious time to even live to be the age of ten. Many children died from the diseases that we can now protect against. Millions of children died, but people also forget that even many more millions suffered from brain injury, paralysis, disfigurations, (and) lifelong problems. Vaccines are credited with saving over 9 million lives a year. If you add that up times 20 years, that’s a lot of lives!”

Immunization awareness is particularly topical at this time of year, since children are heading back to school. With that in mind, the local school districts remind parents their children must have meningococcal and hepatitis C vaccines up to date before starting kindergarten, 7th grade, and 12th grade, as well as history of all other required vaccinations typically administered as a child. To learn more about vaccines, click the link below to listen to our special Health and Wealth program with Anderson.

https://raccoonvalleyradio.com/2018/01/health-and-wealth-program-1232018-vaccines/