• Posted February 24, 2025

Lost Your Vaccine Records? Here’s How to Track Them Down

With measles cases on the rise and flu season straining the nation's hospitals, health experts urge adults to check their vaccination status and get any missing shots.

Health experts agree that vaccines are the best defense against many infections, but keeping track of vaccines received decades ago can be challenging.

“If you’re a 57-year-old adult like me, well, I’m sure that my pediatrician is no longer around,” Daniel Salmon, a professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Washington Post. “For many adults, especially older adults, there may not be a single source for their immunization record.”

Experts have some tips for tracking down your vaccine history:

• Ask your healthcare provider. Many clinics keep vaccination records or can advise on missing vaccines based on your age and health history.

• Check state vaccine registries. Some states and major cities have vaccine databases, though they may be incomplete.

• Contact past providers. Past doctors, schools, universities and even employers like the military may have vaccine documentation.

“We have a really fragmented health-care system,” Salmon said, making records scattered and hard to access.

If records can't be found, blood tests can detect antibodies for certain diseases, including measles, mumps and rubella.

When in doubt, it doesn’t hurt to just get another dose of a vaccine, Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious-disease specialist at Mayo Clinic, told The Post.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends these vaccines for adults:

• COVID: Once a year for most; two doses for adults 65 and older.

• Influenza: Once every year, especially during flu season.

• Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV): For adults 75+, pregnant women, and at-risk adults 60 to 74.

• Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (Tdap): Every 10 years, during pregnancy, if exposed to a puncture wound or if you'll be around a newborn baby.

• Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR): At least one dose for adults who don't have immunity.

• Varicella (chicken pox): Two doses if no evidence of immunity.

• Zoster recombinant (shingles): Two doses for adults 50 and older.

Experts recommend checking the CDC's travel guide for country-specific vaccine recommendations if you plan to travel abroad. 

Is it too late for a flu shot?

Absolutely not, experts said. This year’s flu season is particularly severe, and the virus is likely to spread through May, Sampathkumar explained.

“Definitely get it now if you haven’t,” Emily Smith, an associate professor of global health at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, told The Post. “It might save you from getting a second round of flu this year.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on vaccines and immunizations.

SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Washington Post, media report, Feb. 21, 2025