OPIC Annual Awards Luncheon Set For April 25th in Salem

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - The Oregon Partnership to Immunize Children (OPIC) Awards Luncheon, set for Tuesday, April 25th, from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM, honors individuals and organizations that have significantly contributed to increasing childhood and adolescent immunization awareness and the rate of immunizations in Oregon.

This is OPIC's eighth annual luncheon. It will be held at the Red Lion Hotel, 3301 Market St. NE, in Salem.

Speakers include Gary D. Overturf, M.D., F.A.A.P., will discuss "The 2006 Recommended Childhood and Immunization Schedule � What's New?" Overturf is a Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and Immediate Past Chair, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Vaccine and Related Biologics Advisory Committee.

Organizers say that nearly 1 million children in the United States are inadequately immunized. Each day 11,000 children are born in the U.S. and need protection from 13 vaccine preventable diseases before age two. Immunizations are safe and protect children, families and communities, making them one of our most cost-effective public health strategies.

OPIC joins more than 500 communities in celebrating National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) and Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA) April 22nd to 29th. NIIW calls attention to the importance of timely infant immunization. This year NIIW is working with the Pan American Health Organization's Vaccination Week in the Americas to promote immunization in all countries of the Americas.

More than 35 Western Hemisphere countries join in highlighting the need for routine vaccinations and access to health services for infants and children.

If your organization would like to participate in this event contact Karen R. Elliott, OPIC coordinator, at (971) 673-0285, or karen.r.elliott@state.or.us.