•August 9, 2017•

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is recognizing August as National Immunization Awareness Month as a reminder that vaccines protect against a number of serious and potentially life-threatening diseases. Vaccines give parents the safe, proven power to protect their children from serious diseases like measles and whooping cough (pertussis).

“Most young parents in the U.S. have never seen the devastating effects of diseases like measles and polio, but those diseases still exist,” said IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. “Children who don’t receive recommended vaccines are at risk of not only getting those diseases, but of having a severe case of those diseases. You can’t predict if your child will become sick with a vaccine-preventable disease, or how severe the illness will be, but you can provide the best protection by following the recommended immunization schedule and getting your child the vaccines they need, when they need them.”     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.