Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition Encourages Vaccination Throughout the Influe...( Centers for Disease Control and Pre...),Health

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Families Fighting Flu

Declare November 27 National Children's Flu Vaccination Day

BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- To raise awareness of the need to vaccinate more infants, children and adolescents against influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in conjunction with Families Fighting Flu, declared today, November 27, as the first ever "Children's Flu Vaccination Day." The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases' (NFID) Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition commends this effort to emphasize the importance of annual influenza vaccination to protect children and their contacts from this serious and potentially deadly virus.

"Influenza claims more American lives every year than all other vaccine- preventable diseases combined," said Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, Coalition Chair, 17th Surgeon General of the United States (2002-2006), President of Canyon Ranch Institute and Distinguished Professor of Public Health, The University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. "Annual influenza vaccination is safe and protects our children from disease. But many children still do not receive the influenza vaccine as they should each year. The CDC and Families Fighting Flu, members of the Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition, are doing their part to prevent influenza from harming our children. I want to thank them for the important work they do throughout the year, and especially today on Children's Flu Vaccination Day, to educate all Americans about the critical need for children to be vaccinated against influenza."

Children's Flu Vaccination Day falls within this year's National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW), from November 26 through December 2. NIVW is an annual CDC event designed to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination through November, December and beyond. In the United States, the influenz
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