Quote:
Originally Posted by lumberjim
I was just looking at the 2013 vaccine schedule. polio is still on there. I thought that had been eradicated world wide. Why is that still on there?
Doc, if you were me, what vaccines would you consider having done for a 15 year old, and a 13 year old child?
|
You're right, LJ - smallpox has been eradicated as a 'wild-type' disease, although small samples still exist in laboratories. The WHO has been working hard to make polio the second infectious disease to be eradicated, and the program has been very successful - except in Nigeria, in some of the northern states like Kano State. Due to recent assassinations of community health workers and families bringing their children for vaccination, the WHO has temporarily halted immunization programs there.
If the 13 and 15 year old are completely vaccine-naive and they were my children, I would want them to receive the primary immunization series for tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis; a series for polio using the inactivated vaccine; meningococcal vaccine; two doses of MMR; the varicella vaccine; Hep A & B (this comes as a combination vaccine or can be separate); and the HPV vaccine. I've included a link:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/who/teens/for-parents.html that has information for parents on recommendations. If you google 'vaccine recommendations teens no previous immunizations', you can link to a pdf file that has the 'catch-up' schedule for 7 - 18 year olds who are naive or behind schedule. I couldn't get that link to work directly here, but it's the best one.
Polio has been eradicated in the US, but a visitor from Africa, or even possibly India or Afghanistan, where cases of polio have only just ceased and there may still be undocumented cases, could bring the virus here and infect susceptible people. Varicella is much more severe in older children and adults. Hep B is particularly nasty and there's a high rate of transmission. Hep A still pops up in foodborne outbreaks, and if your teens go on a school or other trip to Central American countries they will likely encounter it. Pertussis is milder in adults but the idea is to make adults less susceptible so that they don't pass it on to susceptible infants.