National Immunization Awareness Month

Vaccines are some of the most effective and successful public health tools, protecting not just the individuals vaccinated but also their communities by limiting or preventing the spread of disease. Immunization has greatly reduced and even eliminated once common infectious diseases.

Unfortunately, not everyone who should get vaccinated does get vaccinated. According to the CDC, vaccine-preventable diseases caused approximately 50,000 deaths per year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. And routine childhood vaccination rates have fallen since the start of the pandemic.

National Immunization Awareness Month is a time for those working in public health to promote continued routine vaccination. The Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research is working with partners throughout Texas and beyond on a number of ongoing research projects to encourage vaccinations. You can learn more about some of our immunization-related projects on the page below.

•   The recommended three-dose schedule is 0, 1–2 and 6 months.

CHPPR Director Dr. Maria E. Fernández and her research team are currently working with healthcare clinics across Texas to test SEMM-DIA as part of the UTHealth Houston CDC-funded Prevention Research Center (PRC) Core Research Project.

Healthcare clinics work every day to improve breast and cervical cancer screening rates among their patient populations; your work is vital. During National Immunization Month and every day, it is our sincere hope that health systems recognize the value in our PRC resources, such as SEMM-DIA. The ongoing testing of SEMM-DIA will provide healthcare clinics with the skills and resources necessary to reach your patients and improve breast and cervical cancer screening & HPV vaccination rates in your clinic systems. 

If you and your clinic's leadership team would like to receive updates on SEMM-DIA, please get in touch with: Project Coordinator, Angelita Alaniz, MPH ([email protected]), and Clinic Relationships Manager, Damita Hines ([email protected]). CHPPR would like to sincerely thank you and your health system for providing breast and cervical cancer screening & HPV vaccination services to women in Texas.

To learn more about recommendations for catch-up HPV vaccinations, click here.

To learn more about their educational programs, visit the Outreach Program webpage and follow them on Facebook and Instagram. For more information, contact Ileska Valencia at [email protected].

All For Them

All for Them, an initiative run by UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, is a multilevel, multicomponent approach to increase HPV vaccination uptake among Texas youth. One strategy that All for Them implements is free mobile vaccination clinics at middle and high schools in multiple districts across the state. At the clinics, which are pre-consented so parents do not have to attend if they are busy, students can obtain all childhood and adolescent vaccines, including the HPV vaccine, which protects against six types of cancer.

Since 2017, 6,600 youth have received at least one vaccine during the 282 clinics that the All for Them team has coordinated and implemented. Of those students, 4,544 received the HPV vaccine. Most of the students who did not receive the HPV vaccine were already up to date on the series, not yet due for the next dose at the time of the clinic, or not eligible for the vaccine. 

Education is also a fundamental part of All for Them’s mission to help families protect their students’ health both now and in the future. The team estimates that it has distributed more than 170,000 HPV vaccine fact sheets to parents and students to date. Additionally, by attending 260 health fairs, back-to-school events, information sessions, and other gatherings, the All for Them team has directly engaged with more than 14,500 parents and students.

All for Them is funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Learn more about All for Them at AllForThemVaccines.com. Follow the project on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).