Assemblywoman Fiona Ma: Children Should Be Immunized

Are you up-to-date on your vaccinations? August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) and it is the perfect time to remind your friends and loved ones to catch up on their vaccinations.

As parents are enrolling their children in school, young adults are entering college, and our healthcare workers prepare for the upcoming flu season, it's important that we are all up-to-date on our vaccinations.

Without doubt, immunization is one of the most significant public health achievements of the past century. Vaccines have helped save millions of lives, virtually eradicating smallpox and significantly reducing the number of cases of measles, diphtheria and other infectious diseases. Despite immunization efforts however, people in the U.S. still die from these and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one million of our nation's two year olds are still missing one or more of the recommended immunizations. Each day 12,000 babies are born who will need to be immunized against 14 diseases by the age of two. Making the decision to immunize your child and stay up-to-date on vaccinations will not only protect your child, but will also protect the community by reducing the spread of diseases to those who have not been vaccinated.

The California School Immunization Law requires that children receive a series of immunizations before entry to schools, child care centers, or family child care homes. California law also requires that schools, child care centers and family child care homes maintain immunization records for all children enrolled and to submit reports to the health department.

To help you stay up-to-date on your child's vaccinations, the California Department of Public Health Web site offers a guide to the requirements of the California School Immunization Law for parents (www.cdph.ca.gov) and the CDC suggests parents can: To make sure your child is up-to-date on immunizations, visit CDC's childhood scheduler online at www2a.cdc.gov/nip/kidstuff/newscheduler. Visit the CDC Web site at www.cdc.gov/vaccines or call 1-800-CDC-INFO for more information on immunizations.

To find out if your child may be eligible to get free vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, visit www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc. Parents may also be interested in looking into the California Immunization Registry (CAIR) - California's statewide immunization registry network.

CAIR is a collaboration of immunization registries that ensures the secure, electronic exchange of immunization records thereby improving immunization rates for all California children. For more information on CAIR, visit www.cairweb.org or call (510) 620-3747. During National Immunization Awareness Month, help spread the word about the benefits of immunization.

Fiona Ma represents the west side of San Francisco at the California Assembly.