YHC will be commencing a vaccination outreach program for the mid-term break starting on Monday, February 23 to Friday, February 27 starting at 9.00am to 12.00pm and 2.00pm to 4.30pm.
Parents can visit the YHC at the Vineyard Office Park Building.
Disease prevention is the key to public health. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccines prevent disease in the people who receive them and protect those who come into contact with unvaccinated individuals.
Vaccines help prevent infectious diseases and save lives. Vaccines are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that were once common around the globe such as polio, measles, diphtheria, rubella, mumps, rubella and tetanus. Many countries have taken action to protect their children because they are aware vaccine-preventable diseases have a costly impact on a community, resulting in doctor's visits, hospitalizations, and premature deaths. Sick children can also cause parents to lose time from work.
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, but babies are now protected by vaccines, and the disease is not seen as often.
"Immunizing individual children helps to protect the health of our community. A measles outbreak in Germany highlighted the need for vaccination reminders and better information for parents, after a study showed that at least 80 per cent of 614 cases in Duisburg in 2006 involved people who have not been vaccinated according to research published by the World Health Organization.
"Measles still cause an estimated 197,000 deaths each year around the world, the majority of them children under the age of five. Measles is a highly contagious disease. Even healthy and well-nourished children, if unvaccinated, are at risk of measles and its complications such as pneumonia. This is an opportunity to check your child's vaccination status, make use it," Commissioner of Public Health Maria Buncamper-Molanus told the Government Information Service (GIS).
Those requiring further information can call YHC at 542-3553, 542-3003 or 542-2078.