All About Infant Immunizations: Q & A with Pediatrician Dr. Adam Spanier

  Adam Spanier, MD, PhD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a Pediatrician with University of Maryland Medical Center. What vaccines are recommended for infants and children? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a group of medical and public health experts called the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices. They develop and regularly review vaccine recommendations. Parents should talk to their pediatrician or family doctor, or reference the CDC or American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s important to know the vaccine schedule is reviewed every six months and often gets updated to reflect new evidence. Are there any recent changes to the vaccine schedule? In fall 2016, there was a decrease in the amount of HPV vaccine children need. The guidelines used to recommend three doses, now it’s only two. Everyone’s happy when there’s fewer shots! Why should infants get immunized? Vaccines protect children. They help infants develop immunity to serious diseases that we don’t want them to get. One example is polio. Because of immunization, we’ve almost wiped out polio. Why are some parents choosing not to have their infants immunized? My experience has been that some people don’t trust the medical system. Sometimes people read something on the Internet that wasn’t necessarily fact-based. There was a paper published in a prominent medical journal many years ago that showed an assoc...
Source: Life in a Medical Center - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs