We miss Leroy Dux as our Immunization Field Rep and appreciate CaSandra Mclain for carrying the torch. And now, let us welcome Karen Fowler, Operations and Management Consultant I with the Immunization Program, as our new Immunization Field Representative for Hardee, Highlands, Okeechobee, Osceloa, and Polk County. Karen can be reached at the Polk CHD in Bartow, 863-519-7900 ext. 11226. Email Karen.Fowler@flhealth.gov.
PKIDS not only gives great information through their blog, but their website is an awesome resource!
This is an excellent post, especially for anyone concerned about the measles outbreak in California. The bottom line is seeking information from your local, trusted health providers.
As the number of measles cases tied to the Disneyland outbreak continues to rise, parents are growing concerned about possible measles exposure in children who are not yet old enough to receive their first dose of MMR (measles, mumps rubella) vaccine. The CDC recommendation is to administer the first dose of MMR between the ages of 12-15 months. However, this recommendation leaves children under one year of age at risk, and so Abigail, like many other parents with young children, raised her concerns on our Vaccinate Your Baby Facebook page by asking
Does anyone have information on giving the MMR vaccine early? My child is just 6 months old. We live in Southern California, a hotbed of the latest measles outbreak. We’re right in it…even our local grocery store was exposed.
I’m a stay at home mom and he has no siblings, and at this point, we are not taking him…
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Take the time to talk to someone you care about to ask if their son or daughter or grandchild or neice or nephew has been been vaccinated against the flu this year.
My daughter, Emily, should have started high school this year full of excitement and potential. Her teachers would ask her, “Are you Chris’s little sister?” or “Are you Andrew’s little sister?” In my head I imagine her earning high marks in advanced classes, joining student council, playing volleyball and basketball and having a great group of close friends. Now I realize that it might not have turned out that way. It’s quite possible that Emily would have entered high school at the peak of her teenage rebellion and might not even be on speaking terms with her mom and me. We will never know, because she died suddenly and tragically from influenza when she was only 3½-years-old.
Emily died from influenza in 2004. She died in our bed, in her pajamas, watching cartoons – just hours before we were scheduled to take…
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| From Florida’s Immunization Section in Tallahassee: We are pleased to remind our immunization partners about the upcoming observance of National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW).
National Influenza Vaccination Week is an annual observance to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination though the holiday season and beyond. This year NIVW is scheduled for December 7–13, 2014.
A goal of NIVW is to communicate the importance of flu vaccination for people who are at high risk for developing flu-related complications: Young children, pregnant women, people with certain chronic health conditions and people 65-years and older. A full list of “People at High Risk of Developing Flu–Related Complications” is available at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/high_risk.htm. There are many choices available for flu vaccine, both in terms of where to get vaccinated and what vaccine to get. Millions of doses of influenza vaccine have been administered to people safely for decades. Once vaccinated people can enjoy their holiday season knowing they protected themselves and their loved ones against the flu. |
| Please visit the CDC resource site at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/nivw/ to obtain educational and promotional materials to encourage community participation for NIVW activities. |
The above article focuses our attention on a mom’s experience after her daughter suffered from meningitis as an infant 11 years ago. She begins by mentioning the recent death of a Lakeland area high school student.
The Polk County Immunization Coalition works to communicate information about vaccines and immunizations to our community to help families avoid the tragic effects of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Last summer I traveled to Kenya as part of a UN Foundation/Every Child By Two delegation to ensure access to vaccines throughout the globe. While there, our delegation traveled to a remote village to meet a little boy named Job Alphonse, who had recently contracted polio along with his sister and brother. Sadly, Job’s mother confided that she had not vaccinated her children at the guidance of her former spiritual leader. While three of her children had contracted polio, only Job’s case had caused permanent paralysis in his legs.
The community health nurses and UN staff explained that the family’s cases had galvanized Kenyans to conduct intense vaccination efforts to stop the spread of the disease in what was once a polio-free country.
It was heartwarming to meet families throughout the country who are truly grateful for the life-saving vaccines provided to…
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Yesterday was the day I had been anxiously anticipating for well over a month. I took my kids to the local senior center to get our flu shots at the county flu vaccination clinic.
While most Americans are worrying themselves sick over Ebola, I’m more concerned about the greater risk of influenza. See, I’m no stranger to the fact that thousands of people die from i
nfluenza each year. In fact, I’ve already read about several flu deaths being reported this season, to include a person from South Carolina and a child from North Carolina in just the past week though these deaths won’t get the media attention Ebola does. And while the flu may not be widespread in my local area at this particular moment, it’s just a matter of time. The flu arrives every year like a tornado on the midwestern plains. Sometimes you get a little bit of a warning, but regardless of whether…
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The United States is currently experiencing a nationwide outbreak of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) associated with severe respiratory illness. From mid-August to October 6, 2014, there have been a confirmed total of 594 people in 43 states and the District of Columbia diagnosed with the infection and five of those patients have since died. While the role that EV-D68 infection played in four of these deaths is still being investigated at this time, the latest fatality of a four-year old boy from New Jersey is confirmed to have been associated with EV-D68. As more cases appear across the country, and more questions arise about the symptoms – or lack of symptoms in the latest fatal case – parents are understandably growing concerned. What is this unfamiliar virus that is threatening the health of their otherwise healthy children?
The truth is that there are more than 100 types of enteroviruses which are fairly common through the summer and fall in the United…
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