pediatric housecalls Robert R. Jarrett M.D. M.B.A. FAAP

Childhood Immunizations In A Nutshell: Links

July 16, 2015

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of blog posts on the internet with outdated information about childhood immunizations. Even the links on a whole lot of physicians web pages fail or point to outdated material.

It’s really not surprising due to the many new ‘official recommendations’ published recently following the frequent recurrences of diseases we thought we had eradicated. Un-immunized children are making new epidemics possible now and there have been many new recommendations published.

School age boy receiving immunizations against life-threatening diseasesAny physician who writes an article which includes a ‘hard-copy’ of current immunization schedules must go back to that same article and update all the information every time new recommendations come out; OR, they need to clearly state the date they are writing the article, when it was last updated and give a clear link to an “Official Source” where the latest information can be found.

Childhood Immunizations

That’s what this short post is intended to be, a repository of links to frequently updated, OFFICIAL and latest recommendations from reputable sources responsible for the health, safety and well being of the world’s children.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) – [Physician]

Foremost, in my book, for updated information about children’s health is the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who not only have standing committees assigned to continuously evaluate all new research and statistics but also to publish recommendations in a timely manner. They also correlate with other official agencies in developing wide reaching ‘best practices’ guidelines for all caregivers of children.

Their main web page, from which you can access all others, is at: American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). It also covers a wide range of information about children’s health in addition to immunizations.

The AAP web pages about immunizations with latest news and FAQs – http://www2.aap.org/immunization/

Items you can print: (these specific direct-link URLs may change at any time at the discretion of the agency)

A brief fact sheet on vaccines from the AAP – http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/vaccinesafety_parenthandout.pdf

The immunization schedule from their ‘Healthy Children’ program, birth through 6 – https://www.healthychildren.org/Documents/tips-tools/Immunization%20Schedules/IZSchedule_Childhood.pdf

The full physician set of guidelines published as a free pre-release section of the ‘Red Book’ – http://redbook.solutions.aap.org/selfserve/ssPage.aspx?SelfServeContentId=Immunization_Schedules.   [Birth to 15 months, 18 months to 18 years.]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – [Government]

Teen boy receiving the latest in recommended immunizations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is becoming the defacto organization for epidemic analysis in the world. As such, they also have all the data and information necessary to design both treatment and prevention programs anywhere in the world.

Their main web page, from which all their latest information can be retrieved, is at: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Obviously there is a lot of information available.

CDC Information specific to vaccine and schedules – http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/.

The CDCs combined immunization schedule for children 0 – 18 years – http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/downloads/child/0-18yrs-child-combined-schedule.pdf.

If a child has missed a scheduled immunization they can’t necessarily merely receive the next vaccination in order, the interrelations are a bit complicated. Here is the ‘make up’ schedule to use when a child is more than one month behind on the recommended schedule: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/catchup-shell.html.   [4 months – 6 years; 7 through 18.]

They’ve also programmed a ‘catch up’ immunization scheduler for children who are behind on immunizations and need to catch up – https://www.vacscheduler.org/ to make things a bit easier. You enter the child’s date of birth and the immunizations that they’ve already had. The computer figures out the make-up schedule based on the latest information.

And, finally, the entire index of the diseases and their vaccines, which you can view and print out is located here: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/index.html.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – [Government]

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is agency responsible in the United States for approving, licensing and monitoring of all drugs available in the US – including vaccines. They are the people tasked with following up vaccine related effects, side-effects and problems; so, as such, they’ve got things to say on the topic.

The FDAs main web page is at: Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – [Government].

National Institutes of Health (NIH) – [Government]

The National Institutes of Health is the steward of medical and behavioral research for the US. A great deal of information on health issues can be found at: health.nih.gov, as well as at the Web sites of their 27 Institutes, Centers and offices.

World Health Organization (WHO) – [Association of Governments]

Vaccinations are the mainstay of the worlds disease epidemic control

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations agency for health. As such their funding and authority is global in nature and supports all UN member nations.

A global perspective on many health issues may be found through their main web page: World Health Organization (WHO)

National Network for Immunization Information – [Public]

The National Network for Immunization Information website is produced by Immunizations for Public Health (I4PH), a Texas-based nonprofit corporation dedicated to making immunization information available to those who need it. They provide science-based information to diverse audiences, including those who deliver vaccines, those who develop immunization policy, and those who receive vaccines.

It is the only link listed here which is entirely based in the public sector and accepts no financial support from the pharmaceutical industry or any government. All support comes from donations and sale of publications and no author receives any money.

If you are confused about all the conflicting immunization information on the internet this website shows you how to intelligently analyze and wade through the credibility and hidden agendas and be able to choose a credible source of information – http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

National Library of Medicine (NLM) – [Government]

The National Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus is one of the best places to begin a search about health matters.

Their main web page open to the public is at: National Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus