Vaccines

Staying up-to-date on your vaccine schedule can help protect you, your family, and your community from communicable diseases. Trinidad Rojas, MD, and Tina E. Floy, MD, of Wellness Pediatrics, PC, in Fairfax, Virginia, offer all standard vaccinations for infants, children, and adults. To learn more about the vaccines available at Wellness Pediatrics, PC, call the office or schedule an appointment online today.

What are vaccines?

Vaccines, or immunizations, are preventive treatments that trigger your immune system’s natural ability to ward off infectious diseases. 

The immune system protects your body against foreign pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, and toxins. By activating your immune system, vaccines can help prevent the spread of disease at home and within your community.

How do vaccines work?

Vaccines introduce a small amount of a weakened or dead pathogen into your body. Once your immune system recognizes the pathogen, it activates when it comes in contact with that virus again to prevent infection. As a result, vaccines can completely stop you from contracting certain communicable diseases or significantly reduce your symptoms.

What are the most common vaccines?

Numerous vaccines exist to protect you from potentially serious diseases and infectious viruses. The most common vaccines include:

• Influenza (flu)
• Varicella (Chickenpox)
• Diphtheria
• Hepatitis A and B
• Haemophilus influenzae type b (hib)
• Measles
• Human papillomavirus (HPV)
• Meningococcal
• Pneumococcal
• Mumps
• Rotavirus
• Poliomyelitis (polio)
• Rubella
• Herpes Zoster (shingles)
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Tetanus 
• COVID-19 

Some vaccines require multiple doses to work effectively. Others need booster shots to continue protecting themselves throughout life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends certain vaccines, such as those that protect against smallpox, cholera, rabies, and typhoid fever, before you travel abroad.

How often do I need vaccines?

During childhood and early adolescence, you may need multiple rounds of immunizations. By adulthood, however, vaccine schedules are not as regular. The CDC recommends that every adult receive the annual flu vaccine once a year and encourages COVID-19 vaccine boosters. All adults also need a Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) vaccine once every 10 years.

Why are vaccines important?

Many vaccines protect you and your family against diseases that currently have no cure, such as polio. Without vaccines, these diseases and viral infections can cause severe complications, such as respiratory problems or loss of muscle function.

Vaccines also minimize the spread of disease within communities and around the world to prevent international epidemics. As people continue to seek immunizations, it diminishes the virus’s ability to find new hosts.

To learn more about vaccines, call Wellness Pediatrics, PC, or schedule an appointment online today.