Immunization Services for Parents and Health Care Providers
The DDC Immunization Program is committed to preventing vaccine-preventable disease among infants, children, adolescents, and adults in Philadelphia.
For general information about immunizations, please call (215) 685-6748.
What Immunizations Does a Child Need?
Children in the United States should routinely receive vaccinations against fourteen diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus Influenzae type b, influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, and streptococcus pneumoniae.
DDC recognizes that immunization is truly a lifelong process -- beginning with hepatitis B vaccine at birth and continuing through pneumococcal and influenza vaccination in older adulthood -- and as such has pursued the following initiatives:
Vaccines For Children (VFC) Program
The DDC Immunization Program provides government-purchased vaccine to the more than 400 pediatric medical providers in Philadelphia to administer to children 18 years and younger whose families have no medical insurance for vaccinations or who are Medicaid-insured. Since providers can not charge families of eligible children for these vaccines, cost should not be an issue in assuring that all children 18 years of age and younger in the city are fully vaccinated.
Visit the VFC page to see frequently requested VFC forms and communications. For more information about the VFC program, call (215) 685-6498, or visit the Philadelphia VFC web page for health care providers.
Kids Immunization Database/Tracking System (KIDS)
Children in school are well immunized because almost all children attend school and are required to be fully vaccinated to enter. However, most childhood vaccinations are due in the first two years of a child's life, when the diseases cause the most severe illnesses. To ensure that all parents and medical providers of preschoolers have access to their children's immunization record, the Immunization Program has developed an immunization database to record the vaccinations of all children living in Philadelphia from birth through school entry. Regardless of how many different doctors or clinics a child has visited for shots, the KIDS Registry is able to provide a single record of each child's vaccinations, and tell parents and providers what immunizations are due.
For more information on KIDS, please call (215) 685-6784. Authorized health care providers may access the KIDS Registry through the web.
Perinatal Hepatitis B Prevention Program (PHBPP)
Approximately 1 in 100 of the 23,000 babies born to Philadelphia mothers each year (or 230 babies) are exposed to the hepatitis B virus during birth. These babies need special vaccinations and close nursing follow-up to prevent their developing lifelong hepatitis B infection and serious liver disease. The PHBPP has the expert nursing staff to provide these important services to these babies.
For more information on the Perinatal Hepatitis B Prevention Program, please call (215) 685-6853.
Other Services
The Philadelphia Immunization Program provides other services as noted below. For more information on these programs, please use the telephone numbers listed below.
- Childcare & School Consultation
(215) 685-6835
- Health Care Provider Consultation
(215) 685-6854
- Adolescent Immunization Initiative
(215) 685-6466
- Adult Immunization Initiative
(215) 685-6466
Immunization Community Outreach Program
The DDC Immunization Program believes that to achieve high vaccination rates and, consequently, low vaccine-preventable disease rates, the most important work must be done at the community level. DDC thus has benefited from the many partnerships with neighborhood groups and organizations that have formed in the past decade around immunization issues. Community efforts have resulted in the raising of the vaccination rates for preschool children from a low of 46 percent coverage among children 19-35 months of age for the 4:3:1:3 series in 1992 (Four doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine, three doses of poliovirus vaccine, one or more doses of measles-containing vaccine, and three doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine) to 82 percent coverage in 2006.
The National Immunization Survey (NIS), conducted each year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also found that the city of Philadelphia had the fourth-highest immunization rates for 19- to 35-month-olds among local areas in the U.S. for 2006. Philadelphia's coverage for the 4:3:1:3:3:1 series (Four doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine, three doses of poliovirus vaccine, one or more doses of measles-containing vaccine, three doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine, three doses of hepatitis B vaccine, and one dose of varicella vaccine) was 80 percent. For more information on the Immunization Community Outreach Program, please call (215) 685-6837.
Varicella (Chickenpox) Active Surveillance Project (VASP)
The chickenpox (varicella) vaccination program has effectively reduced the incidence of chickenpox in the U.S., as well as chickenpox-related hospitalizations and deaths. Philadelphia is one of two cities nationwide that has worked with CDC to monitor the occurrence of chickenpox and shingles (also caused by the chickenpox virus) since the chickenpox vaccine was licensed in 1995. For more information, please call (215) 685-6838.
Other Immunization Services
Also, the PDPH District Health Care Centers continue to provide high-quality, comprehensive primary care and walk-in pediatric vaccination services to families who would otherwise go without medical care in today's rapidly changing health insurance and service market.
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