Talk to your doctor about vaccinations.

Minnesota’s hospitals are more than just places to go when you are sick. Doctors and care teams are available to all patients to discuss the complexities of health care, including preventative care like vaccines.

Vaccines are safe, effective and essential tools to keep your family healthy and free of infectious diseases. That’s why Minnesota’s hospitals encourage you to reach out to your doctor with questions or concerns when deciding what’s best for your family.

Information on this page has been carefully reviewed and verified by Children’s Minnesota and the Minnesota Hospital Association.

It’s up to all of us to keep our communities healthy.

Following the recommended vaccination schedule whenever possible remains one of our most powerful tools against serious diseases. By getting vaccinated, you not only protect yourself, but you also help stop the spread of disease to the most vulnerable in our communities, including infants, the elderly and those unable to receive vaccinations due to compromised immune systems.

This community effect is called herd immunity, and it works best when almost all of the population receives their vaccinations on the recommended schedule.

It’s up to all of us to make sure our families, children at school and day care and neighbors are protected and our communities stay healthy. We are all in this together and as part of a community, it is important for each of us to do what we can to keep all of us healthy.

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Health care providers are reliable sources for vaccine information.

See how other families are talking about vaccinations with their doctors.

Minnesota’s hospitals are more than just places to go when you are sick. Doctors and care teams are available to all patients to discuss the complexities of health care, including preventative care like vaccines.

Vaccines are safe, effective and essential tools to keep your family healthy and free of infectious diseases. That’s why Minnesota’s hospitals encourage you to reach out to your doctor with questions or concerns when deciding what’s best for your family.

Health professionals’ recommended vaccination schedule

Get the Schedule

Why are there so many vaccines?

Vaccination schedules are more complex now than they were a few decades ago. This is a result of our expanded knowledge of childhood and other diseases combined with improved vaccine technology, allowing us to prevent more diseases than ever before. Just as automobiles have become more complicated as improved safety features have been added, the vaccine schedules add additional immunizations that will help save more lives each year.

Six diseases have been eliminated or eradicated in the U.S. because of vaccination efforts, but with a recent large measles outbreak in New York, we are at risk of losing our elimination status for measles because of decreased immunization rates. That’s why it’s important to keep up with the recommended vaccination schedule.

What are some diseases that vaccines prevent?

Chickenpox

What is chickenpox?

Chickenpox (also called varicella) is a virus that is characterized by an itchy rash that turns to painful blisters. It can also cause fatigue and fever. In some cases skin infections can occur and some patients require hospitalizations due to this or more severe responses to the virus. Having chickenpox puts people at risk for getting shingles later in life.

How is chickenpox spread?

Chickenpox spreads very easily by touching chickenpox blisters or through the air when someone with chickenpox coughs or sneezes.

The vaccine

There are two vaccines that protect against chickenpox. One is a combination vaccine called MMRV that contains both chickenpox and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. MMRV is recommended for children 12 months through 12 years of age.

The other is a stand-alone varicella (or VAR) vaccine just for chickenpox. It may be given to young patients who are at a slight risk for an adverse response to the MMRV vaccine or anyone who has already gotten the MMR vaccine. Talk to your doctor about what is best for you or your children.

Measles

What is measles?

Measles, also called rubeola, is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It causes a rash and high fever and can be very dangerous, especially for young children. Several communities in the U.S. are experiencing a resurgence of measles due to declining vaccination rates. These outbreaks have put the U.S. in danger of losing our status of having eliminated the disease.

How is measles spread?

Measles is spread through the air when people who have it breathe and cough. It is highly contagious. In fact, 90% of people who come in contact with measles will catch it if they are not vaccinated. It can also linger in the air for long periods of time. Cases of measles have been traced back in people entering the same room that a measles-infected person had left up to two hours earlier.

The vaccine

The measles vaccine is combined with mumps and rubella (MMR).

Children get MMR doses at 12-15 months and at 4-6 years of age; in some situations, the second MMR may be given as early as one month after the first dose.

An early dose of MMR is recommended for children 6-12 months of age who will be traveling internationally or where outbreaks are occurring.

Adults who have not had measles or measles vaccine should receive at least one dose of MMR vaccine, if they were born in or after 1957.

Students (including college students), health care workers and international travelers (not born before 1957) need to have received two doses of MMR vaccine; if they have not, they should get vaccinated.

HPV

What is HPV?

HPV, or human papillomavirus, is a very common virus that can cause many types of cancer. Almost all cervical cancer is caused by HPV, and it causes cancers that affect men, too.

How is HPV spread?

HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that is spread through intimate skin-to-skin contact with someone who has the virus. Men and women are both carriers.

The vaccine

Two doses of the HPV vaccine are recommended for all boys and girls at ages 11-12 and the vaccine can be given as early as age 9. If you wait until your kids are older than 15 year of age, they will need three doses instead of two.

The vaccine is very effective. Australia has reported that cervical cancer may soon be eradicated because almost all boys and girls are vaccinated for HPV.

Hepatitis A and B

What is hepatitis?

Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis A and B are viral illnesses and vaccine-preventable. Both are serious diseases that can lead to hospitalization and death.

How is hepatitis spread?

Hepatitis A is spread through contaminated food and water or from the unwashed hands of someone who has hepatitis A. Hepatitis B is spread through bodily fluids including sexual transmission, blood and from mother to baby at birth.

The vaccine

The hepatitis A vaccine is given in two doses, six months apart. The vaccine is nearly 100% effective.

Hepatitis B is a three-dose vaccine. It is one of the first vaccines given to a newborn upon birth, as it is critical to keeping the child safe. The second dose is given one month after the first dose and the third dose is given six months after the first dose. The vaccine is over 90% effective.

Influenza

What is influenza?

Influenza (the flu) is a respiratory disease caused by a virus. The nose, throat and lungs are affected. The flu is more serious than a cold and in some extreme cases it can lead to hospitalization or death. Influenza is commonly confused with the “stomach flu,” but influenza does not cause nausea or vomiting.

How is influenza spread?

Influenza is spread through coughs and sneezes of someone who has the virus, or by your face after touching surfaces that have been contaminated with the virus.

The vaccine

Everyone 6 months of age and older should get the flu vaccine every year. The vaccine is available as a shot or a nasal spray. Aim to get the vaccine at least two weeks before the virus is spreading in your community. As a rule of thumb, plan to get it before the end of October.

Do you know the truth about vaccines?

MYTH

Infant immune systems can’t handle so many vaccines.

TRUTH

Infant immune systems are strong enough to handle the recommended vaccination schedule. Babies begin developing immunities as antibodies are passed from mother to baby through the placenta and continue to develop immunities after they are born.

Show MoreThe amount of antigen in the entire vaccine schedule is only a small fraction of what the infant can handle and is exposed to on a daily basis from their surrounding environment. That said, unprotected exposure to circulating diseases like measles can be deadly.

The recommended vaccination schedule is tested and proven to be safe and effective. Spacing out vaccines and using nonrecommended schedules only places the child at risk for exposure and infection. There is no evidence that delayed immunizations or alternate schedules are safer.

MYTH

Vaccines can infect my child and others with the diseases they are supposed to prevent.

TRUTH

Vaccines can cause mild symptoms resembling those of the disease they are protecting against and a common misconception is that these symptoms signal infection. However, none of the vaccines administered in the U.S. are known to cause the disease they are protecting against.

Show MoreAnother common misconception is that vaccines “shed” and people can catch a disease from someone who has been recently immunized. In nearly every case, vaccine shedding is a myth and not a risk of getting vaccinated. Your doctor will tell you if they recommend you not receive a vaccine.

MYTH

We don’t need to vaccinate because infection rates are already so low in the United States.

TRUTH

Infection rates are low because vaccination rates are high. As we have seen with recent measles outbreaks, eliminated diseases can make comebacks when immunization rates dip.

MYTH

Vaccines cause autism.

TRUTH

There is no link between autism spectrum disorder and vaccination.
Show MoreBecause vaccination schedules align with when signs of autism spectrum disorder appear in children, many parents have blamed the vaccines. A fraudulent study in the U.K. linking vaccines to autism spectrum disorder was widely publicized, further confusing people about the connection. However, the study has been proven to be incorrect, based on children selected by a law firm seeking to license its own vaccine, and the doctor who published it lost his medical license for multiple ethical and scientific failures. Multiple studies since have proven that vaccines are in no way linked to autism spectrum disorder.