National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM)

 During National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) in August, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will be promoting new resources for families and pediatricians, many of them translated into more languages to get these important messages to more families. In addition, the AAP will be promoting its YouTube course on immunization: For New Parents, The Complete Guide to Childhood Vaccinations.

For pediatricians, new resources will help communicate with families in every community. The Academy will be promoting translated discussion guides, now available in many new languages including Chinese and Korean. A full set of these will be available in time for NIAM by the end of July. There will also be resources available on HealthyChildren.org, including “Measles: What Parents Need to Know,” now translated into Somali, Nepali, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Arabic, and Russian. A new Ukrainian translation is coming soon. Other resources include:

• HPV vaccination reminder postcards for clinics available in English, Chinese and Spanish
• Adolescent Immunization Discussion Guides (aap.org)
• Measles (Patient Care)

On social media, the AAP will be sharing messages from the AAP’s Immunizations Campaign Toolkit, including:

• Video: Flu/COVID
• Video: Childhood immunizations

Vaccines have dramatically changed medicine over the last century. Before vaccines, parents in the United States could expect that every year:

• Polio would paralyze 10,000 children.
• Pertussis (whooping cough) would kill 8,000 infants.
• Measles would infect about 4 million children, killing about 500.
• Rubella (German measles) would cause birth defects and intellectual disabilities in as many as 20,000 newborns.
• Diphtheria would be one of the most common causes of death in school-aged children.
• A bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) would cause meningitis in 15,000 children, leaving many with permanent brain damage.

Click here for additional resources from CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NIAM website.

The month of May is designated as Hepatitis Awareness Month in the United States, and May 19th is Hepatitis Testing Day. During May, CDC and our public health partners work to shed light on the impact of these hidden epidemics by raising awareness of viral hepatitis while encouraging testing and vaccination. Hepatitis Awareness Month activities help to improve everyone’s understanding of viral hepatitis transmission and risk factors and to decrease social stigma against viral hepatitis.

CDC will focus on three themes this Hepatitis Awareness Month. We encourage you to incorporate these themes and key messages in your promotion activities.

• Increasing access to vaccination, testing, and treatment to key populations and settings can prevent the spread of viral hepatitis for everybody.
• Click here for social content that can be utilized throughout week 1 of Hepatitis Awareness Month.

• To protect young families, CDC recommends screening all pregnant patients for hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
• Click here for social content that can be utilized throughout week 2 of Hepatitis Awareness Month.

• Hepatitis C is a deadly disease. Point-of-care testing can build the bridge to life-saving treatment for those who need it.
• Click here for social content that can be utilized throughout week 3 of Hepatitis Awareness Month.

National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) is a yearly observance held in April, highlighting the importance of protecting children two years and younger from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). NIIW is April 22-29, 2024. 

CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that children stay on track with their well-child appointments and routine vaccinations. On-time vaccination is critical to provide protection against potentially life-threatening diseases. Learn more at CDC: National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW). 

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Use these resources and promotional materials to participate in NIIW and help support childhood immunization.

• CDC: Talking with Parents about Vaccines for Infants
  Health care provider resources for vaccine conversations with parents.
• CDC: Communication and Print Resources
  Vaccine and immunization resources for Health care providers.
• CDC: NIIW sample key messages
  Key messages to encourage parents to stay up to date on their child's vaccines.