August Is National Immunization Awareness Month
Posted by Catherine Morgan on August 12, 2007
August is National Immunization Awareness Month and I was honored to be invited to participate in a phone conference sponsored by Revolution Health last week, for a discussion between other women health bloggers and an expert on immunizations. You can listen to the one hour conference here.
The discussion was very productive, and we were able to talk about a wide range of immunization topics, from childhood to adult with Dr. Stacy Stryer. The other women bloggers that participated in the conference were; Susan Wenner Jackson of (working moms against guilt), Christina Chew of AutismVox, Denise Tanton, my fellow contributing editor at BlogHer health and wellness, Aliza Sherman Risdahl from babyfruit, and Cynthia Samuals was the moderator.
The topic of children who are both uninsured and under-insured was also brought up as a concern during our one hour conversation, it turns out this is a very big problem and only getting worse. The following day I came across this article on the MSNBC site…
One million kids may not be getting their needed vaccinations due to inadequate or no health insurance.
CHICAGO – For children whose health insurance doesn’t cover newly recommended shots, it’s better to have no insurance at all, a new study suggests.
Free vaccines are available to children who are uninsured or qualify for public insurance.
But many states can’t afford to help children with inadequate private insurance that doesn’t cover new, expensive shots and even some older shots, the study found. That puts more than a million children at risk, researchers said. — read more from MSNBC
In addition to all of the discussion of childhood vaccinations, the importance for college bound students to make sure they are up to date with vaccinations (especially Meningitis) was also covered. Considering teenagers aren’t the most compliant patients, parents need to really stay on top of them about this.
Yvette said
Vaccines, etc. are important, but when will we have “National Affordable (or Free) Health Care for all US Citizens Month”? A national health care plan is way past due and not one of the current batch of presidential candidates has a comprehensive plan/implementation schedule ready to go. Depressing.
Catherine Morgan said
Hi Yvette – I agree.