Mary Bridge Children’s urges families to stay current on immunizations

If you or your children are due for immunizations, please don’t put them off. That’s the message from Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital & Health Network as it aims to reassure parents who may be delaying visits to the doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Immunizations are the best defense against preventing many communicable diseases that can cause severe illness and death,” said Dr. Roselynn Cuenca-Hodge, a pediatrician with Mary Bridge Children’s Evergreen Pediatrics. “While there’s currently no vaccine for COVID-19, we cannot forget about those illnesses that we do have protection against.”

Since late March, when President Trump declared a national emergency due to COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported a significant drop-off in routine pediatric vaccine ordering — indicating that U.S. children and their communities may face increased risks for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Locally, Mary Bridge Children’s Mobile Immunization Clinics have seen a significantly lower volume of children coming in for vaccinations with one clinic seeing nearly 80 percent fewer patients in April than in March.

Mary Bridge Children’s is currently seeing children between the ages of 0-4; children ages 11 and 16 who have required vaccinations due, as well as any children who are overdue for their annual health supervision visit or behind on vaccines.

Following are some of the vaccines that are especially recommended:

• MMR Vaccine to defend against measles, mumps and rubella.
• DTaP/Tdap Vaccine to prevent whooping cough.
• Varicella Vaccine to prevent chickenpox.
• Rotavirus Oral Vaccine to prevent severe diarrhea among young children.
• Meningococcal Vaccine to prevent meningitis among patients attending colleges that require it.

Parents whose children need vaccines should contact their child’s primary health care provider to schedule an appointment. If families are unable to see their own provider, or don’t have one, they can also call the Mary Bridge Children’s Mobile Immunization Clinic in Tacoma at 253-403-1767 to make an appointment. The clinic is open weekdays and provides free vaccines recommended by the CDC to children 18 years of age and younger.