PHCA offers flu vaccine for parents when seasonally available (typically August – March). The AAP recommends flu vaccine for parents of children younger than three years, who are at high risk for severe complications from the flu.
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If you are the parent of an infant, it is important that you be immunized against pertussis. Vaccinating parents AND siblings is important to reduce the risk of pertussis infection in infants. The pertussis vaccine is available for parents (and patients) at any Pediatric Health Care Alliance office.
Pertussis infection can occur in adults and adolescents even if they have received childhood vaccinations, and infection poses a dangerous threat to vulnerable infants. Although the source of infant pertussis is unknown in many cases, when it can be identified, family members are often the reservoir of transmission.
The danger with pertussis is that it can often be confused with other respiratory disorders. Symptoms may include runny nose, sneezing, slight fever, severe cough, vomiting, and exhaustion.
Please talk to your child’s health care professional to see whether a tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine is right for you and the other adult and adolescent members of your family. To learn more about the vaccination of adults and adolescents against pertussis, please visit the CDC web site on pertussis.