With just three vaccines, we have the possibility to prevent a large number of diseases – meningitis, a large number of cancers, and whooping cough – among them.
We give these three vaccines at ages 11-12 to maximize protection. While some of these diseases may not be a problem immediately at these ages, we don’t want to wait to prevent them. Think of vaccines like seat belts for your child’s health. We put our seat belts on when we get into the car, because we never know what may happen. We don’t wait to put our seat belt on until we are getting into a car accident.