Why a Littleton Pediatrics Practice Advises Vaccination for Your Kids

The end of summer vacation has gotten plenty of health officials in Colorado and Arizona on edge. According to the Cortez Journal, all students (from kindergarten to high school) are advised to have additional booster shots to protect themselves from pertussis or “whooping cough” for the new school term. Pertussis caused an outbreak in Colorado last year (about 1,400 cases) and health officials are concerned that the same thing might happen this year.

Children may have no choice in getting their shots because schools will be unwilling to accept returning students who have “outdated shot registries.” As such, it is perhaps high time for some kids to visit a center for pediatrics in Littleton, like Focus on Kids Pediatrics, and have additional immunizations. Pediatrics centers have an assortment of booster shots to protect children from hepatitis, influenza, polio, and other diseases as they grow up.

The state's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which was signed into law last 2010, allows children to receive whatever vaccine they lack, in addition to providing young adults with health insurance coverage until they're 26 years old. However, the resumption of classes for this year has brought some changes to children's healthcare, especially when it comes to immunizations. For instance, sixth-graders are now required to have booster shots for chickenpox before they can enroll in their school again.

This also coincides with the addition of Tdap booster shots to protect sixth-graders from pertussis, which will be administered by the schools' health clinics. The disease manifests itself as a bad cough and, indeed, many people self-diagnose the disease mistakenly as such. While anybody can contract this infectious disease, pertussis is especially dangerous for children because they have a hard time eating and breathing, making it one of the most common causes of childhood deaths in the US.

School officials implore parents to have their children vaccinated to help prevent any further outbreaks, be it pertussis or influenza, for 2013. After all, vaccines don't only protect children from such diseases, but they also ensure the well-being of the entire neighborhood and community. Some Littleton pediatrics centers, like Focus on Kids, have an immunization schedule so that parents would know the right vaccines at the right time for their children.

There is no guarantee that a pertussis outbreak won't happen in Colorado, Arizona, and the rest of the United States this year, even with all the mandatory vaccinations. This is why parents and school officials should do their part in diminishing the likelihood of this happening during the new school term.