Diseases That Immunization Protects Against

Immunizations are an important part of healthcare for your children, people who are around your children, and yourself. It is important that before you get pregnant, you make sure that you are up-to-date on your immunizations and that you get a whopping cough vaccine in your third trimester. Dr. Aldo Bejarano at AFB Pediatrics in Pasadena, TX can help your children once they are born to follow the CDC and the AAP recommendations for immunizations.

Immunizations are one of the most significant medical developments of the last 125 years. When you look at the childhood mortality rate in 1900, 30% of children died before age 5 from illness. Today accidents are the most common cause of childhood deaths and less than 1.4% of children die before age 5. Children are no longer dying from simple childhood diseases because they don't get them as a result of immunizations.

Advances in public health are largely responsible for the better health enjoyed by children. Children who in times past would have died from an array of childhood infections today have long and healthy lives thanks to improvements in sanitation, vaccines, and antibiotics.

Diseases That Immunization Protects Against

Hepatitis B

The first immunization your child will receive is a Hepatitis B vaccine at birth with two additional doses before 18 months of age. Hepatitis B is a serious infection of the liver that can lead to serious liver failure later in life. 

Rotavirus

Rotavirus often causes severe, watery diarrhea and vomiting in infants and young children. It causes dehydration which may result in hospitalization and even death. Immunization is done after the age of six weeks. 

Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis

Tetanus is an infection known as lockjaw from which 1 in 4 people die. Diphtheria is an infection that causes difficulty breathing, heart rhythm problems, and even death. Pertussis is whooping cough a serious infection, especially in babies. These three diseases are treated with a combination vaccine. 

Measles, mumps, and rubella

These are easily recognized childhood illnesses that no longer need to be suffered through. The immunization will make sure that your children don't have to suffer through these conditions. 

Polio

Polio, the crippling disease, has been almost entirely irradiated in the United States due to the polio campaign begun in the 1950s. Four doses are recommended before age 6.

These are just some of the diseases that immunization protects your children from. Your pediatrician may recommend others as they grow beyond early childhood.

You can count on Dr. Bejarano of AFB Pediatrics in Pasadena, TX to make sure that your children have their recommended immunizations at the correct age. Call our office at (832) 386-9200 to make an appointment today.