We all need immunizations to help protect us from serious diseases. The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) is taking the month of August, National Immunization Awareness Month, to remind all Georgians the importance of being up-to-date with their immunizations.
  
Immunization is one of modern medicine's most significant public health achievements, and with parents enrolling children in school, college students heading back to the dorms and everyone preparing for the upcoming flu season, August is the perfect time to shine light on the value of immunizations.

Over the course of one year, DPH administers more than 700,000 immunizations at local county health departments, which protects people from illnesses such as measles, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps and seasonal flu.

There are many reasons to make sure you and your loved ones are up to date with your vaccinations. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it.

The viruses and bacteria that cause vaccine-preventable diseases and death still exist and can infect people who are not protected by vaccines. According to the CDC, tens of thousands of people in the United States still die from vaccine-preventable diseases every year. Vaccine-preventable diseases have a costly impact, resulting in doctors' visits, hospitalizations and premature deaths. Sick children can also cause parents to lose time from work.

Entire communities are protected through maintaining high immunization rates, thereby interrupting the transmission of disease-causing bacteria or viruses. This reduces the risk that unimmunized people will be exposed to disease-causing agents. This type of protection is known as herd immunity, and demonstrates the concept that protecting the majority with safe, effective vaccines also protects those who cannot be immunized for medical reasons.

This August, make sure you and your loved ones are up to date with vaccinations in order to be protected from disease.

-Story by Kimberly Stringer, DPH Communications