Vaccine News & Notes — April 2017

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Parents PACK

National Infant Immunization Week & World Immunization Week

The last week of April marks National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) in the U.S. The celebration is part of a worldwide celebration, called World Immunization Week (WIW). The global observance features activities in more than 180 countries. The goals are to highlight the importance of getting infants fully vaccinated and the power of vaccines to protect those children. Watch for events in your community or on your social media feeds.

New and revised VEC resources

Recently, the Vaccine Education Center released new resources: 

  • New or expectant moms — A new section of our website conveniently groups vaccine information and answers for new and expectant moms at an easy-to-remember URL, vaccine.chop.edu/yourbaby. This page includes not only vaccine information for pregnant women, but also information that new moms may be seeking, including questions related to vaccines and breastfeeding, preterm infants, and the first couple of years of life.
  • Classroom materials for teachers — New materials for classrooms focus on understanding the immune system, how germs cause diseases and how humans have leveraged this understanding to create technologies, such as vaccines, that can protect us against infections. Resources include lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, web-based content, animations and more, and can be used from elementary school through high school and college. Learn more at vaccine.chop.edu/schools.  
  • New and updated Q&A sheets — Three new question and answer sheets address hepatitis B, yellow fever and infectious diseases and fevers. Q&A sheets regarding Zika virus and infectious diseases and pregnancy were also recently updated.

State of the ImmUnion

Every Child by Two (ECBT) developed a report titled “State of the ImmUnion” that details the power and success of vaccines in America and what steps can be taken to strengthen our health as a nation. You can read more about the report and what steps you can take to help immunizations remain a public health priority in this Shot of Prevention blog post.

Materials in this section are updated as new information and vaccines become available. The Vaccine Education Center staff regularly reviews materials for accuracy.

You should not consider the information in this site to be specific, professional medical advice for your personal health or for your family's personal health. You should not use it to replace any relationship with a physician or other qualified healthcare professional. For medical concerns, including decisions about vaccinations, medications and other treatments, you should always consult your physician or, in serious cases, seek immediate assistance from emergency personnel.