Sylvia Mathews Burwell

As parents and caregivers, we all feel a deep sense of responsibility toward our children. The first time I held my daughter and son, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to give them a healthy start in life. As they began to crawl, walk and play outside, I realized I couldn’t always stop them from getting scraped knees or stuffy noses. We know some risks are inevitable, but there is something every parent can do to protect their kids from getting some serious diseases. Just by getting my children their routine immunizations, I knew I could help them stay healthy in a big way, and in turn, help protect my community.

This week, communities across the country have been commemorating National Infant Immunization Week. Every year, we highlight the importance of protecting infants from vaccine-preventable diseases and celebrate the positive impact immunizations have on the health of our children, families and communities.

At the Department of Health and Human Services, we work with partners from all different backgrounds and walks of life. No one is too small, or too furry. They can even be a monster.

My friend Elmo is one of many helping us spread the word about childhood immunization. With his help, and other collaborations with the public and private sectors, we can help keep coverage high. This is especially important because routine childhood immunization for those born between 1994 and 2013 will prevent an estimated 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes. It will also save consumers and taxpayers money — nearly $295 billion in direct costs and $1.38 trillion in total societal costs.

Thanks to vaccines, we’ve had great success preventing diseases. In fact, many practicing physicians and other health care professionals today have never seen a case of measles or some of the other vaccine-preventable diseases. This is great news, but our work is not yet done.

The success of vaccinations makes it easy to think diseases like whooping cough and measles are in the past. However, as recent measles outbreaks show us, children in the United States can—and do—still get some of these diseases. We must continue our efforts to protect our children now more than ever.

National Infant Immunization Week is an opportunity for us to honor our progress and recommit to year-round efforts. We all have a role to play, whether it is increasing awareness of the importance of immunization and the role of state and local vaccination requirements in maintaining high vaccination coverage rates (and, in turn, lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases); enhancing communication between health care professionals and patients; or making and keeping needed vaccination appointments. CDC has new resources to help in our efforts to promote vaccination: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/index.html.

I am so glad I was able to give my children a healthy start. In a world of unknowns, we can all make sure that our families don’t have to needlessly suffer from easily preventable diseases. That’s security that every child deserves.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.