August is recognized as National Immunization Awareness month. We tend to think of vaccinating our children but pay little attention to the fact that this very issue involves individuals of all ages.

Thanks to our conscientious pediatricians, babies and young children are well covered when it comes to completion of vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), hepatitis A, varicella (chicken pox), polio, and more. One of the interesting reminders I relate to is that immunization can be compared with a set of steps, such as those in your home. A young child cannot “step up” or advance to enter school without proper immunization. He or she may slide briefly, but cannot advance to middle school or high school without having been properly immunized. To the best of my knowledge, every college application has a section on immunization and, you guessed it, mandates for such things as the hepatitis B series as a firm requirement for admission.
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