8 Vaccinations You Can Get At Urgent Care

Fighting disease has been central to medicine for as long as medicine has existed, and vaccines changed the way we think about preventing disease. With a history going back centuries, the first successful attempt to use a vaccine to treat an illness began with smallpox in 1796, when Dr. Edward Jenner immunized eight-year-old James Phipps.

Since then, vaccines have been instrumental in managing epidemics and pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic just a few years ago. And to stay healthy with proper inoculation, let’s explain how vaccines help, which ones we offer, and what the procedure is like.

Dr. Andrew Nangalama and his dedicated medical team at American River Urgent Care are committed to your well-being through a range of treatments for disease and injury, including vaccinations.

How vaccines keep you healthy

Your immune system, the network of organs, glands, and cells that fight disease, works to stop viral, bacterial, or fungal threats before they can cause damage, but many illnesses still get through. Vaccines help the immune system by simulating a trial run of a disease through exposure.

This means a dead variant of a virus is introduced to your body through an injection, so your immune system recognizes it and learns to detect and fight it when the virus tries to infiltrate. And because viruses mutate over time, we continue to get vaccines as they evolve to fight them.

Vaccines we offer

Whether you’re trying to avoid getting sick while traveling abroad, getting your kids ready for the next school season, or avoiding illness in the fall and winter, we have several vaccinations available:

• Dtap: covers prevention of diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis) whooping cough)

• Haemophilus influenzae type B: a bacterium that causes several diseases, including bronchitis, pneumonia, and meningitis

• Hepatitis A and B: types of viral hepatitis that can lead to complications if not treated properly

• Human papillomavirus: called HPV for short, is a viral infection that can lead to cervical cancer

• MMR: helps you avoid getting measles, mumps, and rubella

• Rotovirus: an infection that often infects children under five and spreads quickly

• Poliovirus: a dangerous illness that can cause paralysis, breathing problems, and death

• Varicella: the varicella-zoster virus is what causes chickenpox, which can be dangerous and spreads quickly

What to expect

Because vaccines give you a dead version of the virus, your immune system has to respond to the vaccine to help determine its effectiveness. This means that once you get the injection, you can expect some mild symptoms that indicate your immune system is adapting to it.

The effects of a vaccine will vary depending on which one you’re getting, but once vaccines are administered, you’re often asked to wait for about 10-15 minutes to check for immediate side effects. Afterward, any side effects you experience are short-term, possibly lasting a few days.

Whether you’re getting a routine vaccine or getting ready to travel, make an appointment with Dr. Nangalama and the American River Urgent Care team today to get the vaccinations you need to be safe.