The doctors at Genesee-Transit Pediatrics believe that immunizations are the single most important health service that we provide in order to give your child the best chance at a healthy life.  We firmly support the American Academy of Pediatrics and the medical evidence behind the academy’s position that childhood vaccinations are safe when given in the currently established schedule, and that vaccines do not cause autism or developmental delays.  We advocate for our patients, your children, on all aspects of providing care.  The strength of this conviction is unwavering, and that is why we strongly recommend following the childhood immunization schedule, as published.  We also, as parents, have followed the recommended schedule for our own children as well.

Thankfully, many parents and even pediatricians have not witnessed cases of diphtheria, tetanus, bacterial meningitis, epiglottitis, and measles because of the successful vaccination campaigns of the past.  We should not be casual about this issue nor let down our guard against these incapacitating and deadly illnesses.

Refusing or delaying vaccines puts your child and the children of your community at risk.  Currently about 10% of children in the United States are unvaccinated. With this statistic on the rise unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children no longer have the benefit of “herd immunity” to protect them from vaccine communicable diseases.  Non-immunized children become ill and allow these vaccine preventable illnesses to spread through a community. In the process, children with immune deficiencies or cancer, who are unable to receive vaccines, are susceptible, as well. This may be a child in your daughter’s classroom, a girl you pass by at the grocery store, or a boy sitting next to you in our waiting room.

You have put your trust in us to care for your children. Trust us to keep your children safe from vaccine communicable illnesses.  Their lives may depend on it.

Darlene A. Dzik, MD, John A. Dzik, MD,
Khristina Kasuba, MD, Alessandra M. Palma, MD
& Eric G. Sickels, MD