Youth Health Care (YHC) is calling on parents and guardians to get their children vaccinated against childhood diseases such as rubella, mumps and measles, and to make use of the school Christmas holiday period when YHC will be open for this purpose.
YHC will be open from 8.30am to 4.30pm and even through lunch allowing working parents an opportunity to bring their kids in to update their child (ren’s) vaccination status and or records. The YHC office is located at the Vineyard Office Park Building.
The administering of vaccinations against childhood diseases is free. There is no charge for children four through 17 years old to be vaccinated at YHC. This vaccination program is sponsored by the Island Government.
Vaccines help prevent infectious diseases and save lives. Vaccines are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases including polio and tetanus.
Since the vaccination open house back in May up to the first week of December, over 1200 MMR2 vaccinations were administered to young people.
YHC has also changed its vaccination schedule. The schedule was changed in order to achieve more compliance and to ensure that children get their vaccinations on time. Parents would leave a long time pass before they would follow-up for another vaccination.
Parents/guardians are free to come into YHC to get information on their child vaccination status and if they allow their children to be vaccinated by their physicians or abroad, then, this information should be brought into YHC so that the vaccination records can be updated.
Disease prevention is the key to public health. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it.
Those requiring further information can call YHC at 542-3553, 542-3003 or 542-2078.