Articles Index

Vaccine Shortage Update
Learn about the current vaccine shortages and delays, including the current Hib vaccine shortage and how it may affect your child.

Free Vaccines - Low Cost Vaccines
Review where you can get free vaccines or low cost vaccines for your child that is uninsured or underinsured and can't afford vaccines.

Vaccine Preventable Illnesses
Vaccines have done such a good job of controlling diseases in developed countries, such as the United States, that parents sometimes forget just how important they are and what life would be like without them. Learn about how current vaccines and past vaccination programs have now controlled 10 major infectious diseases.

Meningitis - Meningitis Vaccines
Meningitis can be a severe infection of the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord and brain. Fortunately, there are several meningitis vaccines to help protect children from bacterial meningitis.

Lost Vaccine Records
Your child has had all or most of his vaccines, but you can't find his vaccine records. Your doctor can't find them either. What do you do? Does he need to start getting shots all over again?

Vaccine Additives and Preservatives
Although mercury has been removed from most vaccines, vaccines may still contain aluminum, formaldehyde, human serum albumin, gelatin, antibiotics and yeast proteins. Learn why your child's vaccines may have these additives and why the AAP says they are safe.

The Vaccine Debate
The 'vaccine debate' about whether vaccines are safe or could be causing autism has been in the news a lot lately. For most pediatricians, the vaccine debate doesn't revolve around trying to change the minds of anti-vaccine proponents. Instead, they work to help parents make an informed decision about vaccinating their children.

The History of Vaccine Preventable Illnesses
Not surprisingly, there has been a debate about the safety and importance of vaccines even before the first vaccine was introduced. Being reminded of this first debate and how now vaccine preventable illnesses affected other people may help parents as they debate the vaccine issue for themselves.

New Vaccines for Teens
Learn more about two new vaccines, Boostrix and Menactra, that will be available to help protect older kids from pertussis and meningitis.

HPV Vaccine for School Girls
Gardasil is a new HPV vaccine that has been approved by the FDA to prevent cervical cancer in girls between the ages of 9 and 26 years of age. In fact, some states may begin requiring that all school girls receive the HPV vaccine.

HPV Controversy
Vaccines have always been a bit controversial, but Gardasil, the HPV vaccine that protects girls against four types of HPV, or human papillomavirus, including the two types that cause most cervical cancers and the two types that cause the most genital warts, has been especially controversial.

Chickenpox Vaccine Update
The ACIP is now recommending that children get a second dose of the chickenpox vaccine when they are four to six years old, which should help to further decrease chickenpox infections.

2006 Immunization Schedule
Review the updated 2006 childhood immunization schedule from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Boostrix Pertussis Vaccine for Teens
Read about Boostrix or Tdap, a new vaccine to protect older children and teens against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis or whooping cough.

Menactra - New Vaccine For Meningococcal Disease
Learn more about Menactra, a new vaccine to protect your kids against meningitis and meningococcal disease.

The Importance of Vaccines
Review why it is still important to continue to vaccinate our kids, even as the levels of many vaccine preventable illnesses are at record low levels in the United States.

2005 Childhood Immunization Schedule
Review the 2005 childhood and adolescent immunization schedule to make sure that your child's vaccinations are up-to-date.

Vaccine Information Statements
Review our Vaccine Information Statements (VISs), which are information sheets that explain to parents both the benefits and risks of vaccines, such as those to prevent chickenpox, measles, polio and pertussis.