National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) is an annual observance to highlight the importance of protecting infants from vaccine-preventable diseases and celebrate the achievements of immunization programs in promoting healthy communities. This year’s NIIW will be celebrated the week of April 18-25. We’ve reached many public health milestones in recent history thanks to vaccines. Rates of infant death and disability due to preventable diseases has decreased a great deal with widespread vaccination. Other achievements include:
- Through immunization, we can now protect infants and children from 14 vaccine-preventable diseases before age two.
- In the 1950’s, nearly every child developed measles, and unfortunately, some even died from this serious disease. Today, many practicing physicians have never seen a case of measles.
- Routine childhood immunization in one birth cohort prevents about 20 million cases of disease and about 42,000 deaths. It also saves about $13.5 billion in direct costs.
The best way to celebrate NIIW is to make sure your baby is vaccinated. It is also important for others to be fully vaccinated to protect those who are not old enough to receive certain vaccines yet.
We are currently enrolling infants age 6 to 12 weeks for a pneumococcal vaccine research study. Click here to learn more or call Foothill Family Clinic at 801-486-3021 (ask for Research).
