Dr. Takashi Wada, director/health officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, urges parents to make sure their children are fully immunized before classes start this fall.
By law, California schools must review children’s immunization records to ensure that students have received all required shots for school entry. Immunizations are available through your private doctor, community health clinics and Public Health Department immunization clinics.
Immunizations remain a safe and effective way to keep the children of Santa Barbara County healthy and in school. Vaccines help control many infectious diseases that were once common in this country, including chicken pox, hepatitis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella (German measles) and polio.
High immunization rates of 93 percent in 2009 for all Santa Barbara County kindergarten entrants are expected to continue as schools and health-care providers work closely with families during back-to-school registrations. In the wake of a statewide outbreak, Santa Barbara County Public Health is urging middle school students to get vaccinated for whooping cough before classes start.
Although the whooping cough vaccination is not required to start in middle school, “receiving the booster vaccination at 10 to 12 years of age is an important tool to prevent the spread of whooping cough in our schools,” Wada said.
The Public Health Department also reminds parents that all children age 6 months or older are now recommended to be immunized against seasonal influenza.
For more information about California school immunization requirements, vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases, parents should contact their child’s physician, school nurse, or click here or call 805.346.8420 for the Public Health Department Immunization Project.
— Susan Klein-Rothschild is a public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.