Receiving a vaccination is introducing a vaccine into your body to help produce immunity to a specific disease, while immunization is the process in which an individual becomes protected against a disease through a vaccination.

A vaccine stimulates an individual’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, which protects the said individual from that disease. Vaccines are usually given through an injection from a needle, but they can also be administered in other options like through the mouth or sprayed into the nasal passages.

You are given immunity which is protection from the infectious disease by being given a vaccine. Even if you are immune to a disease, you can then be exposed to the disease without becoming infected.

Vaccines are able to activate our immune system without making us sick. Many of the dangerous and infectious diseases can be easily prevented by an effective vaccine.

Even from birth, we are exposed to many different viruses, bacteria and microbes. Many are not harmful; however, many are and those ones can cause disease.

The body’s immune system is what helps to protect us against infections from diseases. When we are exposed to these infections, our immune system triggers a sequence of responses to neutralize the microbes and limit their harmful effects on us.

Vaccines help to obtain immunity without offering the risks of having the disease. When we get a vaccine, our body activate the immune systems “memory” to store it away, if we ever come into contact with this disease in the future, it remembers it and how to fight it.

At this time, there is no national organization that maintains our vaccination records. The only records given out were available to you or your parents when you were given any vaccines, and the medical record would have been offered to you from your doctor or clinic. Some doctor’s clinics will offer records on their systems, check you’re your family doctor that you grew up going too or are going to recently, as they should have an immunization record available for each patient.

If you do need official medical copies of your vaccination records, of if you need to update your own records, you can:

• Ask your parents or caregivers if they have any record of your child immunizations
• Review any baby books or other saved documents from your childhood.
• Check with your old high schools or colleges health service centers for dates of any immunizations they may have on record. Generally, school’s only keep records on hand for 1-2 years before being stored away.
• Check with a previous employer that required immunizations
• Contact your state’s health department as some have registries that include adult vaccines on file.

The CDC offers a great resource to review for Child and Adult Immunization Schedules to see when your next immunization should be done and what one it would be.

Our family care clinic at Suburban Healthcare Associates offers all the most common vaccines that you will need to keep your family up to date on their immunizations. If you are looking for a specific vaccine and you do not see it listed below, please contact us to clarify if we do carry this or if we can refer you somewhere for it:

• Hepatitis B
• Flu
• MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella)
• Chickenpox
• Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis)
• Meningococcal

Suburban Healthcare Associates has three convenient locations in the heart of top Illinois cities to choose from in Naperville IL, Plainfield IL and Joliet, IL. Call our clinic or book your appointment online today! We serve patients from Naperville IL, Plainfield IL, Joliet IL, Romeoville IL, Shorewood IL, Crest Hill IL, and Aurora IL.