6/15/2021 10:12:09 AM
The COVID-19 epidemic has brought a lot of worries to many parents and affected the vaccination of their children. Some parents wonder what to do about their children's scheduled immunizations during the pandemic.
1. Should children be vaccinated according to the schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The answer is yes. Although the COVID-19 epidemic disrupts some of everyone's daily activities, we should try to get our children vaccinated because vaccines are available to help protect children from serious illnesses, just as COVID- 19.
The COVID-19 outbreak also reminds us of the value of vaccines. We realize the importance of vaccines. Without the protection of vaccines, diseases can spread quickly and leave extremely severe consequences. For example, 'Measles' - a condition that spreads very quickly, there is always a potential risk of an outbreak if not vaccinated. When a person with measles can infect 12-18 people, measles causes some serious complications such as pneumonia, otitis media, encephalitis, malnutrition, etc. Fortunately, there is a vaccine for measles.
Vaccination must achieve the rate of over 80% of subjects to be able to prevent epidemics. Therefore, if vaccination rates decrease, the risk of outbreaks due to vaccine-prevented diseases can more easily occur.
2. Is it safe to vaccinate children during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that all vaccines be given on a routine basis, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently no evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic poses any specific risk associated with vaccination. Therefore, vaccination should be continued and if the schedule is delayed, it should be given as soon as possible.
Vaccination during the COVID-19 epidemic will not affect the vaccine's effectiveness and will not increase post-injection side effects.
3. Do vaccinations increase my child's risk of getting COVID-19?
There is currently no evidence that vaccination increases a child's risk of contracting COVID-19 or affects a child's immune system during the incubation period.
Immunization at medical facilities with full vaccination safety measures, infection prevention and compliance with strict epidemic prevention measures will help children be safer and limit the risk of COVID infection.
4. Why is vaccination especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Any disruption of immunization services, even for short periods, puts communities and especially children at immediate risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. The number of unvaccinated children will increase in the community, putting the community's protection at risk and increasing the possibility of another disease outbreak. Such outbreaks can lead to illness and death from preventable diseases such as measles or, more recently, diphtheria.
5. Does being infected with COVID-19 mean not being vaccinated against other vaccines?
People infected with COVID-19 are not subject to contraindications to vaccination. But if the child is showing symptoms of COVID infection, we need to adhere to isolation and treatment measures and will postpone the injection during this period. Immunizations will be resumed as soon as possible after the child has recovered.
Self-monitoring of blood pressure at home has been proven to be reliable, helping to improve patient adherence, increase blood pressure control, and help patients better understand their disease. Therefore, instead of anxiously waiting for the "routine test," everyone should actively monitor their blood pressure!
Patients often have the habit of looking forward to the day of the medical examination, then anxiously waiting for the nurse to measure this visit to see if their blood pressure is high or not.
In some places, this measured value is the only blood pressure data for the doctor to consider before changing the medication or increasing or decreasing the dose.
The American and European Heart Associations have highly recommended self-monitoring of blood pressure by patients at home. Because it reflects the patient's "background" blood pressure over a long period, these measurements provide more information for the Physician to consider and evaluate the effectiveness of the prescription being treated, more than just relying on a single measurement at the time of visit.
Self-monitoring of blood pressure at home has been proven to be reliable, helping to improve patient adherence, increase blood pressure control, and help patients better understand their disease. Therefore, instead of anxiously waiting for the "routine test," everyone should actively monitor their blood pressure!
For simplicity and accuracy, keep in mind the principle of self-measurement of blood pressure according to the sequence of numbers
You should have a blood pressure monitoring book and show it to your doctor at each follow-up visit. About measuring technique: