Childhood Immunization Guidelines
Registered nurses experienced with the
special skills needed to give safe and effective
immunizations to young children provide shots at
Boulder County Public Health
clinics in Longmont and Boulder.
The Immunization Program
participates in the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC)
Program. Under this program, we are able to provide
immunizations to children from birth through 18
years of age beginning at $14 per immunization, with a
maximum charge of $56. No child will be denied
service because of inability to pay.
Why are Childhood Vaccines so Important?
It’s true that newborn babies are immune to many
diseases because they receive antibodies from
their mothers; however, the duration of this
immunity may last only a month to about a year.
Further, young children do not have maternal
immunity against some vaccine-preventable diseases,
such as whooping cough.
If a child is not vaccinated and is exposed to a
disease germ, the child’s body may not be strong
enough to fight the disease. Before vaccines, many
children died from diseases that vaccines now
prevent, such as whooping cough, measles, and polio.
Those same germs exist today; however, babies are now
protected by vaccines, so these
diseases do not occur as often.
Immunizing individual children also helps to
protect the health of our community, especially
those people who are not immunized. People who are
not immunized include:
- Those who are too young to be vaccinated
(i.e. children less than one year cannot
receive the measles vaccine, but they can be infected by
the measles virus).
- Those who cannot be vaccinated for medical
reasons (e.g. children with leukemia).
- Those who cannot make an adequate response to
vaccination.
In addition, people who can't be vaccinated or
who don't develop immunity to the vaccine would be less
likely to be exposed to disease germs that can be
passed around by unvaccinated children. Immunization
also slows down or stops disease outbreaks.
See also:
Top of Page |
