Immunization

TMA Grants to Help Your Practice Improve Local Vaccination Rates - 04/14/2025

Apply for a grant. Vaccines Defend What Matters (formerly Be Wise – Immunize) is TMA’s integrated, multimedia public health education and advocacy effort to overcome vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccination rates in Texas. 

Texas Physicians Explain Herd Immunity Needed to Fight Contagious-Disease Hotspots - 03/26/2025

A community with enough vaccinated people can protect each other from the spread of contagious disease. Herd immunity – also known as community immunity – protects those who are not immune and those who cannot or choose not to get vaccinated.

TMA Grants Build Community Connections for Underserved Patients - 03/11/2025

Physicians have until Feb. 7 to apply for the first of three rounds of $3,500 Vaccines Defend What Matters local impact grants funded by the TMA Foundation. Grantees can use the funds to vaccinate underserved and uninsured populations and toward outreach initiatives that address vaccine hesitancy.  

Talk to Patients About: Measles - 02/24/2025

Few Americans today remember when measles was deadly. But before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, the disease killed about 2.6 million globally each year. By 2016, vaccination programs cut that number to about 89,000.

TMA’s Top Legislative Priorities: Protect Immunizations to Protect Public Health - 01/06/2025

TMA will work to safeguard immunizations this legislative session.

Talk to Patients About: Varicella - 09/19/2024

The varicella-zoster virus  does double-duty: It can cause chickenpox when you’re young and reactivate later in life as a painful, blistery rash called shingles. Well, there’s a vaccine for each disease.

Talk to Patients About: Rubella - 09/19/2024

The virus that causes rubella often appears deceptively mild — so mild in fact that one-quarter to half of people infected with it will have no symptoms at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaccination is the best protection.

CMS Ups Seasonal Flu Vaccine Payment - 09/09/2024

On Aug. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services increased payments to physicians for influenza vaccines and updated which codes physicians should use when billing for the service during the 2024-25 flu season.

TMA Vaccination Grants Connect Hard-to-Reach Patients; Apply by May 1 - 03/28/2024

Dozens of patients in the Lubbock area are up to date on their vaccinations thanks to a local impact grant from the Texas Medical Association, which has opened the latest 2024 application cycle for vaccine outreach programs until May 1.

Measles: Updated Information and Resources Available to Fight Rising Cases - 02/21/2024

As measles cases continue to rise in Texas and across the U.S., the Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association have created a document to help physicians and other health care professionals combat the highly contagious respiratory illness. The document provides the latest recommendations for diagnosing and reporting measles, immunizations, infection prevention and control, and post-exposure prophylaxis and exclusion.

Apply for a Grant to Help Promote Vaccines - 12/14/2023

More than ever, medicine needs its soldiers to promote the safety, efficacy, and importance of vaccines.

Build Immunization Awareness During August - 09/11/2023

If you weren’t already aware, August is National Immunization Awareness Month. As a physician, you’re aware of how important vaccines are for public health. But some of your patients might not know or understand the benefits of getting vaccinated. Whether you’re talking to parents of young children, senior citizens, or anyone in between, TMA’s Be Wise – Immunize has some tools you can use.

Update: Ten Measles Cases Reported in Texas - 09/11/2023

Ten cases of measles have been reported in Texas this year, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said in a statement Wednesday. The 10th case is an adult who was visiting Guadalupe County from the Philippines, where there is an ongoing measles outbreak, the statement said. 

Using Social Media to Curb HPV on Campus - 09/11/2023

With funding help from the TMA Foundation, the association’s philanthropic arm, more than 100 students at Angelo State University in San Angelo and Tyler Junior College in Tyler received free HPV shots at their schools’ health fairs March 5 and 7.

Talk To Your Patients About: Mumps - 09/11/2023

The March issue of Texas Medicine highlights mumps, which spreads easily through sneezing and coughing, or just touching infected surfaces. A vaccine, first introduced in 1967, reduced U.S. cases by 99 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Talk to Your Patients About: Tetanus - 09/11/2023

The April issue of Texas Medicine highlights tetanus, which causes painful spasms that typically occur in jaw muscles but can wrack the entire body, and can be fatal.

Talk to Your Patients About: Meningococcal B - 09/11/2023

Texas Medicine recently highlighted Meningococcal B, a bacterial infection that can affect the blood, brain, and spinal cord with lasting effects like learning difficulties, hearing loss, or limb amputation. The Meningococcal B vaccine is relatively new, having won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2014.

Texas is No. 1 in “Hotspots” For Vaccine Exemptions - 09/11/2023

Houston, Fort Worth, Plano, and Austin are among the cities in the nation with the highest number of kindergartners who have not received vaccinations because of nonmedical reasons, according to the study published this week in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Talk to Your Patients About: Hepatitis B - 09/11/2023

Texas Medicine recently highlighted Hepatitis B, a viral liver infection that spreads through contact with blood and other bodily fluids. Hepatitis B has two stages: acute and chronic. The acute stage is often symptomless, making the disease easy to spread unknowingly. The acute stage normally resolves within six months. But if it becomes chronic, the condition can cause lifelong health problems like cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver failure.

Most Texans Support Mandatory Childhood Vaccinations, Yet Another Poll Shows - 09/11/2023

Although an anti-vaccine movement has continued to grow in Texas, the vast majority of voters support requiring vaccinations for Texas children, results from a poll released this week show.

Talk to Your Patients About: Polio - 09/11/2023

February’s Texas Medicine magazine highlights polio, a virus that was mostly  eradicated in the United States by 1979, thanks to a vaccine. However, we still vaccinate children here because the crippling disease remains a problem in Asia and Africa, and it could spread when people travel.

Talk to Patients About: Hib - 09/11/2023

Talk to your patients about Haemophilus influenzae type b – or Hib, which, despite its name, does not cause influenza. However, Hib causes several severe illnesses, particularly meningitis, mostly in children younger than 5.

Talk to Patients About: Diphtheria - 09/11/2023

 Diphtheria infected more than 200,000 and killed 15,000 in the U.S. in 1920, but the growing use of vaccines during that decade caused rates to drop, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. In the 1940s, the diphtheria vaccine was combined with tetanus and pertussis, and the shot became routine for children. Between 2004 and 2017, only two U.S. cases were reported, CDC says.

Watch Herd Immunity at Work - 09/11/2023

A new simulation  shows the brutal intensity of a measles outbreak after the introduction of just one sick person to a community.

TMA Pushes Back Against Planned Vaccine Payment Cuts - 09/06/2023

As the influenza virus continues to spread statewide, the Texas Medical Association and other specialty societies have taken a stand against a plan to cut by almost 36 percent payments to physicians who administer a flu vaccine in their offices.