Back to School, Back to Vaccinations: Vital parenting information from Eyewitness News

Whether your child is heading off to school for the first time, or going back to school after summer break, having the proper immunizations is essential. Dr. Mary Anne Jackson is the Chief of Infectious Disease at Children's Mercy Hospitals, and she says sometimes parents have a misconception that their baby is too young to be vaccinated or that there are too many shots.

Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, MD/Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics
The number of antigens in the vaccinations are about 150. But if you look at the human immune system, we can tackle about a billion antigens.

The very first shot your baby gets is whithin 12 hours of being born. That's the Hepatitis B vaccine. Every year numerous children are affected by an illness, like chicken pox or measles, that could have been prevented through routine inoculations. Dr. Jackson says it's a myth to think some diseases have been wiped out.

Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, MD
The idea of 'I don't need to get my child immunized because these diseases are gone is false, they're not. They are reemerging and they're only a plane ride away. You could have a child come to this country from another where polio is endemic, say India or Pakistan. That happens every day of every year in the United States. And that coupled potentially introduce a new infection into, hopefully an immune, population if we keep immunizing.

And vaccinations include the one for influenza, and this year, possibly the swine flu.

Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, MD
Right now we are performing trials at Children's mercy hospital in younger children. We are trying to determine what the exact dose of the virus will be and the interval between the two vaccines.

You can find more details at www.children'smercy.org