August is National Immunization Awareness Month

National Immunization Awareness Month — which runs throughout August — is an excellent time to remind your patients that receiving all recommended vaccines protects against serious illness.

In fact, educating patients about the effectiveness of vaccines has never been more important. There’s a lot of misinformation regarding vaccines on the internet and social media, and that has resulted in some people refusing to get themselves or their children vaccinated; such a decision can lead to unnecessary and even life-threatening illnesses.

Drop in Vaccination Rates

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that vaccination rates for children , teens, and adults dropped in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other factors related to declining immunization rates include religious reasons, safety concerns, and personal beliefs or philosophical reasons. Some parents mistakenly believe that preventable diseases — for which there are approved and effective vaccinations — are not very prevalent, so their children are at minimal risk of contracting these illnesses. There’s also a false belief that preventable diseases are somehow not serious or life-threatening.

What You Can Do

Patients trust you as their Primary Care Provider and, therefore, listen to your recommendations. We encourage you to educate your patients on the value of immunizations.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases® shares 10 reasons to get vaccinated:

  1. Vaccine-preventable diseases have not gone away
  2. Vaccines help keep you healthy
  3. Vaccines are as important to your overall health as diet and exercise
  4. Vaccination can mean the difference between life and death
  5. Vaccines are safe
  6. Vaccines cannot give you the diseases they are designed to prevent
  7. Young and healthy people can get very sick, too
  8. Vaccine-preventable diseases are expensive
  9. When you get sick, your children, grandchildren, and parents are at risk, too
  10. Everyone deserves the chance to stay healthy

Immunization schedules by age can be downloaded from the CDC website:

The Provider Resource Center (PRC) has the following educational materials available for download:

  • Childhood Immunization Brochure & Schedule
  • Childhood Immunization Flyer
  • Preventive Health Reminder Poster
  • Flu Flyer (English and Spanish)
  • Adolescent Immunization Bookmark
  • Health Screening and Vaccination Tracker (English and Spanish)
  • HPV Information Card

To access them, go to the PRC, select EDUCATION/MANUALS from the left menu and then click Educational Resources – Member And Provider. Highmark’s Preventive Health Guidelines are also available from the drop-down menu under EDUCATION/MANUALS.


 

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