National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) is an annual observance held in August to highlight the importance of routine vaccination for people of all ages.

5 Reasons for Adults to Vaccinate

1. Vaccines Have Saved Lives for Over 100 Years—But Serious Disease Is Still a Threat - Vaccines have greatly reduced diseases that once routinely harmed or killed babies, children, and adults. People all over the world—including in the United States—still become seriously ill or even die from diseases that vaccines can help prevent. 
   
   
2. Vaccines Are the Best Way to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones from Preventable Disease - Did you know that vaccines are the best way to protect yourself from certain preventable diseases? Vaccines help your body create protective antibodies—proteins that help it fight off infections.

   By getting vaccinated, you can protect yourself and also avoid spreading preventable diseases to other people in your community. Some people cannot get certain vaccines because they are too young or too old or they have a weakened immune system or other serious health condition. Those people are less likely to catch a preventable disease when you and others around them are vaccinated against it.

3. Vaccines Can Prevent Serious Illness - Some vaccine-preventable diseases can have serious complications or even lead to later illnesses. For them, vaccination provides protection not only against the disease itself but also against the dangerous complications or consequences that it can bring.
   
   
4. The Vaccines You Receive Are Safe -  Vaccine safety is a high priority. CDC and other experts carefully review safety data before recommending any vaccine, then continually monitor vaccine safety after approval. Vaccines can have side effects, but most people experience only mild side effects—if any—after vaccination.
   
   
5. Vaccines May Be Required - Certain vaccines are required for school, work, travel, and more. Students, military personnel, and residents of rehabilitation or care centers must be vaccinated against diseases that circulate in close quarters. Health care workers and others whose job puts them at risk of catching and spreading preventable diseases need to be vaccinated against them. And, of course, vaccination is required before travel to many places around the world. Because vaccination protects you and those around you, vaccines can be required for everyday activities as well as for extraordinary situations.