Preteens Urged To Get Vaccinations Updated Hepatitis, Chickenpox, Measles Shots Suggested

The nation’s 11- and 12-year-olds should see a doctor to get vaccinations they skipped and new ones that have become available since they were babies, the government recommended Thursday.

Experts on infectious diseases long have urged that preteens see a doctor to update their vaccinations, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now officially has endorsed that idea.

“The CDC is establishing this policy of routine visits to make sure adolescents are up-to-date on their shots and are able to see what other immunizations they might need,” said John Livengood of the CDC’s epidemiology and surveillance division.

Most infants get a series of shots to ward off most childhood diseases and hepatitis B. But the hepatitis vaccine was not recommended as a routine shot until 1991, and a vaccine against chickenpox has been available only since May 1995, so preteens would not have had those shots as babies.

One in five children ages 11 and 12 is at risk of chickenpox because he or she hasn’t had the disease or the vaccination.

There are 200,000 new hepatitis B infections each year, 70 percent of them among 15- to 39-year-olds. The liver disease can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

And while measles is declining overall, 17 outbreaks in the United States this year occurred mostly among children age 10 and older, the CDC said.

The routine visit to a doctor to get missed vaccinations also would be the time for a second measles shot, which the CDC recommended in 1989. Children born before 1985 may not have received the second shot.

“The great value of this visit is not only to generally check that all immunizations are up-to-date but also to catch up with adolescents before they become sexually active,” said Dr. Gregory A. Poland, chief of vaccine research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.