Shots aren’t just for babies—preteens and teens need vaccines, too. Kids can be exposed to a lot more viruses during the preteen years and being up-to-date can help ward off getting sick. Daniel Boadwine, MD with Avera Pediatrics, explains what vaccines parents should consider having their teenagers get at their next appointment.
What are some of the preteen and teen vaccines parents should consider?
There are two common vaccines that are typically given to kids later in their development, the first is the HPV vaccine, which protects against the human papillomavirus and the second is a meningococcal vaccine which protects against serious bacterial infection.
What is the HPV vaccine, who can get it and when?
HPV stands for human papillomavirus. It's a virus that can be spread via contact with other humans, and when we start that at about the age of 9, then we can help protect those kids for essentially the rest of their life.
Children ages 11–12 years (both boys and girls) should get two doses of HPV vaccine, given six to 12 months apart. HPV vaccines can be given starting at age 9. Only two doses are needed if the first dose was given before 15th birthday. Older teens can still get the vaccination, but may need a third booster to get full immunity.
Human papillomavirus is one of the main leading causes of cervical cancer, so if we can get that vaccine series started earlier in kids' lives, it can actually help to prevent cancer later in life, which is not something that all vaccines can put their name on, but that one can be looked at as an almost anti-cancer vaccination.
Why is getting this vaccine so important?
Anytime we get a chance to prevent a cancer later in life, we should absolutely take it. HPV is a very common virus that can cause cancers later in life. About 13 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year. You can protect your child from these cancers with HPV vaccine.
What about meningococcal vaccines?
There are two separate ones that can be given, one that starts around that middle school 11-year-old range, and then another that starts at about 16. Typically when people hear meningitis, they think of the college student who is in the dormitory and gets really sick really quickly. That's the second vaccine that we're giving, that 16-year-old vaccine. What this can prevent is something called meningitis, which is just a fancy way of saying there's an infection and inflammation in some of the tissue that surrounds the brain, and these can be very serious when these infections happen, so these vaccinations do a really great job at helping to prevent that spread in those cases.
The CDC recommends meningococcal vaccination for all preteens and teens, as well as other children and adults at increased risk. College-aged teens living in dormitories are more susceptible to getting infected and parents should make sure kids are up to date on all vaccines before they head back to school.
How can parents and teens help stay on top of their vaccine schedule?
The easiest way to stay on top of that is to always make sure you're going to your regular visits. Usually that's yearly, maybe every one to two years if you get into those early teen years, but if you ever have questions, reach out to your regular doctor and ask them because we can tell you right away what kids are due for. It takes about five or 10 seconds to look that up, so always ask and then make sure you go to those regular appointments.
What's the take home message about vaccines?
To me, vaccines are paramount to the future safety of our kids, as well as adults and everybody as they age. The sooner we can get them started, the better off the protection for the rest of the years of that person's life they're going to have, so make sure that you're going in for your regularly scheduled well visits, especially in those teen years. Oftentimes kids kind of slip through at 12, 13 or 14, and we might not see them for a few years, but there are things that are important that we can update and offer new immunizations for during those times.
Learn about immunizations and pediatrics care at Avera
