Never Too Late

More North Lincolnshire mums and dads are now choosing to protect their youngsters against potentially serious diseases.

Illnesses such as Measles, Mumps and Rubella can have very serious and life-threatening complications but new figures show growing numbers of parents are opting to get their children immunised.

In the last nine months immunisation of pre-school children in North Lincolnshire has risen from 83% to 88%. Health experts are delighted with this upward trend and stress that it’s never too late to protect your children against serious diseases by catching up with their vaccinations.

Vaccines help your child fight off infections and have prevented the spread of highly infectious diseases such as measles that can cause serious illness, blindness and even death.

Following the now discredited MMR vaccination scare of the 1990s some parents chose not to get their children immunised, leading to an increase in measles outbreaks nationally. Although MMR vaccination rates have now recovered many children who missed out at the time remain unprotected. However Ben Anderson, Locum Consultant in Public Health for North Lincolnshire, stressed that it is never too late to have your child immunised.

“Even if your child has missed an appointment or is older than the recommended age, your GP, Practice Nurse or Health Visitor will advise and enable you to pick up the immunisation schedule so that he or she can gain the immediate benefits, without having to start again,” said Ben.

Sara Griffiths, Health Improvement Practitioner Specialist for Children and Young People said a lot of hard work was going on in North Lincolnshire to encourage families to give their children the best possible protection.

“We have been working closely with Children’s Centres and GP Surgeries to ensure that immunisation rates in our area continue to rise,” explains Sarah. “Some parents do not realise that there are still infectious diseases out there that can cause lasting damage to their health or even death. It’s essential that all Mums and Dads and other carers are fully aware of the very real risks of diseases such as Measles, Mumps and Rubella.”