As your children head back to school this fall, it is an ideal time to be sure all their immunizations are up to date. Thanks to immunizations, diseases such as polio, mumps, and diphtheria are nearly unheard of today. Without proper immunizations the number of cases of dangerous diseases increases dramatically, as noted in the recent resurgence of measles. From 1983 to 1990, the U.S. saw an increase of over 26,000 cases of measles, mostly young children who were not immunized.

Michelle Malloy, pediatric nurse practitioner with UI Health Care, Belle Plaine, tells us more about the importance of immunizing your children as they head back to school.

What are the diseases children are vaccinated against?

Well, there's a variety of them. The typical school-age ones that people think of are diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus, pneumococcal, and hepatitis B. They're also vaccinating the older children against human papilloma virus, which is the common cause of cervical cancer; and meningococcal disease, or meningitis.

At what ages do vaccinations occur?

Typically we start them off with the hepatis B—sometimes at birth—or the general pediatric schedule starts at 2, 4, 6 months, 15 months, and then a booster shot is given at 4 years of age and 10 years of age.

At what ages are booster shots required?

It's recommended that everyone receive a tetanus shot or a form of tetanus. There's tetanus now with the diphtheria component in it and pertussis that's recommended to be given every 10 years. Booster shots on meningitis, so far, have been just a one-time vaccine.

In Iowa, is it mandatory that children receive vaccinations before starting school?

It is mandatory unless you have some religious or medical exemption, and there's different evaluations or processes to go through if you do have an exemption—whether it's religious-based or medical-based—but that would be different from state to state. Now in Iowa it is required unless there is some exemption that is evaluated by a health care provider.

How safe are vaccinations?

That's a very important question. Everyone has heard one view or another on whether they are safe, whether they are not safe. The best place to review all the information that has been studied and the most accurate, up to date information would be the Centers for Disease Control. The FDA, which is the Federal Drug Administration, is what we have in the United States that evaluates the medications that are regulated here to give in the states. We have the best program for evaluating the effectiveness of medication, the side-effects, and whether or not the benefit to harm ratio is beneficial. What we have found from vaccinations: it is the number one benefit for preventing worldwide diseases. We've eliminated polio in every place but India and Africa—it's almost completely eradicated—so we'll almost be not giving that vaccine soon. We have completely eradicated smallpox from the public health end of things. Vaccinations are tremendously important to decrease overall health of the community.

Do children experience any side-effects from vaccinations?

Most side-effects that people will incur is a little bit of infection at the site, firmness, redness, they can run a fever for a couple days (usually no higher than 102° and no longer than 2 days). Those are the most common side-effects. If there is any further side-effect that a child is experiencing, then it would be important that you call your health care provider immediately so they can sift out whether the child has another illness which happened to be acquired at the same time they received vaccines. There is an advanced program for vaccine adverse side-effect reporting if there are any side-effects from the vaccines that are not just the normal redness, fever—that needs to be reported to the state and those studies are investigated by the Federal Drug Administration.

How easy is it for a parent to get their child immunized?

Very easy, there are a variety of places they can go. They can go to the area health department—they usually have vaccines there; and any of your normal health care offices; pediatric offices; they are available and people will be encouraging you to get them. Some of the WIC departments (Women Infant and Children) throughout the state have vaccines right there. When they receive their WIC checks, they will be able to get vaccinated as well, so it's very convenient and we just really encourage people to do that for their overall health and safety.

KXIC broadcasts are presented in mp3 format. The latest version of Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, or Real Player is required to play them.

Listen to the radio broadcast