Immunizations are also called vaccines. An immunization is an injection with a weakened form of a disease, such as your annual flu shot. This is designed to trigger your body’s immune response. The immunization causes the body to either produce antibodies to that particular disease or begin other immunity-building processes.

Once you are vaccinated, your immune system is better-prepared to fight the infection from that particular disease. Vaccines can:

• Prevent the onset of a disease or reduce its severity.
• Protect us and prevent the spread of those diseases to others.
• Successfully prevent epidemics of infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and whooping cough to save countless lives as they have in the past.

Some of the diseases we immunize against once posed a serious threat to children. Today, thanks to immunizations, most of those diseases have either been eradicated or have reached their lowest levels in decades. That is why it is important to keep each immunization on-schedule and up-to-date. Keep in mind that some vaccines require only one shot while others require “boosters” to maintain continued protection against disease.

Protect yourself and your family against common diseases such as hepatitis A and B, flu, measles, HPV and more.