Wheeling, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – August is National Immunization Awareness Month.

Governor Pritzker spoke on the effectiveness of vaccines during a press conference held Monday, as part of the annual back-to-school push.

“According to the CDC, for the children born from 1994 to 2023, routine childhood vaccinations have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths,” said Pritzker.

Pritzker also gave examples like two doses of the measles vaccine being 97 percent effective at preventing the disease, and two doses of the chicken pox vaccine are 90 percent effective.

Sunnah Kim, mother of 3 and former pediatric nurse practitioner shares the story of a child who wasn’t vaccinated.

“A little five year old girl was very sick. She was very unstable, and she had meningitis from something called Haemophilus influenzae.  Unfortunately, this little girl died on Christmas morning.  It was heart-wrenching.  And, honestly, it was more hard because there actually was a vaccine available to prevent Haemophilus influenzae.  But, it had only been released two years prior, and for whatever reason she was not able to receive it.”

Kim says children should not be dying of vaccine-preventable illnesses.