Vaccines Save Lives
by Ngozi Osuagwu, MD | August 5th, 2018
- CDC estimates that flu has resulted in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010.
- About 900,000 people get pneumococcal pneumonia every year, leading to as many as 400,000 hospitalizations and 28,000 deaths.
- About 10% to 13% of people who get shingles will experience a painful complication called post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). People with PHN have severe pain in the areas where they had the shingles rash. This pain can last from weeks to years.
- 850,000 to 2.2 million people suffer from chronic hepatitis B, with complications such as liver cancer.
- In the United States, HPV causes about 19,700 cases of cancer in women and about 12,800 cases of cancer in men each year. About 4,000 women die each year from cervical cancer.
August is National Immunization Awareness Month. Vaccines save lives. When you are up to date with your vaccines, you can decrease your risk of getting the flu, pneumonia, shingles, liver cancer, cervical cancer to name a few. Vaccines are not only for children. Adults need their vaccines especially those who are pregnant and those who have chronic diseases like asthma.
To find out what vaccines are recommended for you, please take the CDC vaccine quiz.
To learn more about vaccine, please check out the blog titled: Gynecology 110: Vaccines Are Not For Children.
