Oklahoma Alliance for Healthy Families

08/26/2026

It’s not too late to immunize your children this season.🚸 Check the link in the first comment to see where the Oklahoma Caring Foundation Caring Van will set up its mobile clinic next. 🚎

08/25/2026

We join with public health officials in urging the importance of the immunization series, which offers lifelong protection against measles, mumps and rubella. ⚕️ Immunizing your child can also help prevent possible complications, which can surface years after exposure, including brain swelling, blindness and paralysis. 🧠 Talk with your family doctor about catching up on any missed doses and schedule today for optimal protection. 🩹

08/25/2026

A new tetanus-diphtheria immunization that does not require refrigeration has shown excellent preliminary results. 💉 The vaccine can be stored for at least two years in temperatures up to 86 degrees F. More than half of all vaccines produced are currently thrown away, sometimes due to lack of storage options that result in spoilage, the World Health Organization reports. ⚕️ Find out more at the first link in the comments.

08/24/2026

What’s missing from this checklist? This year’s flu immunization should also be part of your routine. 🩹 Schedule your family’s vaccination appointment today.

08/21/2026

Immunizations have been the subject of recent headlines, including an executive order regarding the immunization. 🩹 Dr. Veer Vedala, family medicine specialist, shared his take on the topic, along with the facts on the vaccines' safety and science. 🔬⚕

08/19/2026

Stay up-to-date on immunizations at any age by talking to your doctor. Find out which boosters you need according to your age and medical history. 🩹

Yes. In its 2018 recommendations for the prevention of herpes zoster, ACIP states that Shingrix may be used in adults age 50 years or older irrespective of prior receipt of varicella vaccine or live zoster vaccine (Zostavax, Merck). Shingrix is also recommended for adults age 19 and older who are immunocompromised due to disease or treatment if they have a history of varicella illness or varicella vaccination.

You’ll find this answer, as well as other varicella vaccine Q&As, here: www.immunize.org/ask-experts/topic/varicella.

08/18/2026

Administering the hepatitis B vaccine at birth has become a controversial issue over the past year. This immunization series offers important protection throughout the child’s life. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Read one doctor’s personal experience due to lack of vaccine access.

Story submission by Dr. Trieu Pham: I am an urgent care physician, and a hepatitis B patient who nearly died. Because I was not vaccinated as a child, I needed a liver transplant to survive.

I grew up in Vietnam, where hepatitis B vaccines were not available until the mid-1990s. Most people born before that—people like me, like my uncle, like millions in the endemic areas across Southeast Asia and Africa—were never vaccinated. Many people contract and carry the virus without knowing it. If people never develop obvious symptoms, they never know to get screened and tested. Then, when they reach their late 40s and 50s with chronic hepatitis, they develop complications like liver cancer and cirrhosis. A lot of these people die.

I had been living in the United States for four or five years when I learned that my uncle—my mother’s older brother—had died. Liver cancer, they told me later. After that, my family got serious. Everyone got tested. We found out that multiple members of my family were living with chronic hepatitis B.

I already knew I was one of them. I was tested after moving to the US and found out I had the virus. It was a challenge to accept and for me, personally, it was scary. Hepatitis B is a chronic condition. We can suppress the virus and try to minimize complications. But we don’t have medication that can clear the virus completely. It does not go away.

I tried, for a long time, not to think about it.

The rest of Trieu's story is linked in the comments below.

08/17/2026

Medical experts know: vaccinating children fully and on schedule matters. It can save your child’s life or the life of a child too young to be immunized. See the schedule at the first link in the comments. ⚕️

Precisely.

ALT TEXT: an image of a tweet by user Alastair McAlpine, MD . It reads:

I know hundreds, if not thousands, of pediatricians.

Every single one vaccinates their kids fully and on schedule.

Should tell you everything you need to know.

08/12/2026

We love to hear about advances in science that make immunizations more effective and accessible. A new report from NPR highlights current research on the development of a universal vaccine for diseases currently immunized against separately. 🧬🧪 𒉭 ⋆ It also shares that immunizations could be administered without the use of a needle. Hear the full report at the link in the first comment.

08/11/2026

Dr. Stephanie DeLeon, a pediatrician at Oklahoma Children's OU Health was recently featured on CW 43’s Rise & Shine Friday broadcast. If you haven’t already scheduled immunizations, it’s not too late. 🚸 Make an appointment today or visit a walk-in clinic to make up for any missed doses of important vaccines like measles, whooping cough or tetanus. Get additional information at the first link in the comments.