We are experiencing very high call volumes! We appreciate your patience as we upgrade our phone systems to accommodate the phone calls. We encourage patients with portal access to please use your AthenaHealth portal for communication. For patients without portal access, please leave a phone message with your name, date of birth, phone number and reason for the call. We will contact you. DO NOT leave messages on this website. This website is not monitored for patient messages. If you are experiencing an emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest Emergency Room.
Skip to main content

Vaccines Specialist

Comprehensive Pediatrics and Internal Medicine

Marquisha D Moore Jarmon, MD

Board Certified Internal Medicine & Primary Care & Pediatrics located in Hoover, AL

Vaccines can protect you and your family from some of the most unpleasant and dangerous infections, often with just one simple injection. If you want to make sure you’re fully protected, double board-certified physician Marquisha Moore Jarmon, MD, of Comprehensive Pediatrics and Internal Medicine, can check which vaccines you need and prepare an immunization schedule. Keep your family safe from disease by calling Comprehensive Pediatrics and Internal Medicine in Hoover, Alabama, or booking an appointment online today.

Vaccines Q & A

What are vaccines?

Vaccines protect you against disease by arming your immune system against possible attacks from harmful microorganisms.

Having a vaccination gives your body protection from diseases that you haven’t had. In this way, you don’t have to endure the misery and potentially harmful effects of getting sick.

How do vaccines work?

Vaccines make use of the way your body reacts to anything it thinks could be a threat. The immune system has a defense mechanism that attacks and kills dangerous viruses and bacteria. It releases antibodies from your white blood cells that target the invader and wipe it out.

The first time your immune system encounters a particular strain of virus, it needs to make the right antibodies. While the battle in your cells between the virus and the immune system is going on, you experience the unpleasant symptoms of being sick with a cold, flu, or other infection.

As soon as the white blood cells create the right kind of antibodies, they make them in large numbers and release them to kill the infection. Afterward, your immune system keeps a blueprint of that antibody, so if you ever encounter the same infection again, your body can kill it instantly.

What vaccines are available?

Vaccines currently available include:

  • Measles
  • Mumps
  • Rubella
  • Diphtheria
  • Tetanus
  • Chickenpox
  • Rotavirus
  • Pneumococcal infection
  • Whooping cough (pertussis)
  • Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib)
  • Hepatitis A and B
  • Polio
  • Flu
  • Human papillomavirus (HPV)

You get most of your vaccines when you’re a child. If you’re not sure what vaccines your own children need, Dr. Jarmon can advise you.

Some vaccines last a lifetime, while others need renewing at certain intervals. In the case of flu, there are many different strains, so you need an immunization every year to protect against the strain that’s most widespread at the time.

Why do we need vaccines?

You might wonder why you need to have a vaccination against a disease when your body could do the work for you if necessary. While it’s true that if you have measles as a child you won’t get it again, you still have to go through the process of being sick. That’s never pleasant, and for some people, diseases like measles can be fatal.

Other conditions like smallpox used to cause vast numbers of deaths. Thanks to vaccines, the threat of smallpox was wiped out altogether.

To arrange a consultation with Dr. Jarmon to discuss vaccinations for your or your child, call Comprehensive Pediatrics and Internal Medicine or book an appointment online today.