Your school may have a policy that parents have updated medical charts showing their child's most current vaccines. This helps prevent the passing along of some serious conditions. Here's a list of the 10 most suggested vaccines for kids, teens, and adults according to KidsHealth.org.
1. The HPV vaccine. Human Papillomavirus causes the sexually transmitted disease genital HPV infection and is a risk for cancer of the cervix and genital areas.
2. The tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap). Pertussis (whooping cough) is a highly contagious debilitating cough caused by Bordetella pertussis or B. parapertussis bacteria. It can cause permanent disability or even death in infants. With pertussis immunizations becoming routine among infants and young children, more cases are now seen among adolescents and adults. Adolescents from 11 to 18 years of age should receive a single shot of Tdap.
3. The meningococcal conjugate vaccine. Menigococcal infection is an extremely serious disease that can rapidly progress to shock, meningitis, and death. The rates of infection are highest in infancy but there is a second peak in adolescents.
4. The Hepa B vaccine. Hepatitis B is serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the liver. In the US, most persons infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) got the infection as adolescents or young adults, primarily through sexual contact, intravenous-drug use, or contact with an infected person.
5. The varicella vaccine. Varicella or chickenpox is highly contagious with more prevalent and serious complications in adults. Highly susceptible adolescents are those that have not been vaccinated or caught the disease during childhood.
6. A combined vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella. Because of widespread immunizations among children, the incidences of measles, mumps, and rubella have considerably gone down. However, adolescents who have not been immunized as children, or have not caught the disease as children, such as those who came from non-Western countries, are still highly susceptible to infection.
7. The vaccine Td. Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection that can produce a poison in the body that causes serious complications such as heart failure or paralysis.
8. DTaP, Tdap, DT, and Td. Tdap (Tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis) and Td (Tetanus-diphtheria) vaccines. Tetanus (lockjaw) is a serious disease that results in painful tightening of the muscles, usually all over the body. It can lead to death in about 1 in 10 cases. The vaccine for tetanus is usually given in several combinations that also prevent diphtheria and pertussis.
9. The flu shot. Influenza is a highly contagious viral infection that ‘visits’ the USA and other countries almost every year.
10. The pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Pneumococcal infection is a serious disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. It kills more people in the U.S. each year than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. However, the risk for pneumococcal disease is highest in young children, the elderly, and persons of any age with chronic medical conditions such as alcoholism, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, immune-suppressive diseases, sickle-cell anemia, and different types of cancer.
