By Jeanette Stehr-Green
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jeanette Stehr-Green of Port Angeles is the interim public health officer for Clallam County.
IT’S BACK-TO-SCHOOL time, which means it’s time for haircuts, shopping for school supplies and getting new shoes.
It also means it is time to make sure children are up to date on their immunizations in Clallam and Jefferson counties, where vaccination rates are falling.
By law, children must be vaccinated against certain diseases to attend public or private schools in Washington.
It is recommended that parents begin vaccinating their children soon after birth to protect them from a variety of serious diseases.
The earliest vaccination takes place before a newborn is discharged from the hospital; other vaccines follow soon thereafter to protect the child from a host of diseases as quickly as possible.
At school entry, the stakes become higher.
As children congregate, risk is significantly increased for the spread of diseases.
Being vaccinated can prevent a child from getting infected.
When enough children are vaccinated, those who are vaccinated can provide a shield of protection for those who cannot be vaccinated.
This shield of protection, called “community immunity,” protects children with weakened immune systems and those who cannot get the shots because of certain medical conditions.
(It also protects community members with these same issues.)
High levels of immunization coverage are needed for community immunity. For measles, 95 percent of children need to be immune for protection of others.
Since the introduction of vaccinations, the U.S. has witnessed an enormous decrease in illnesses and deaths due to vaccinating preventable diseases.
Endemic transmission of polio, measles and rubella has been eliminated. Mumps, whooping cough and chickenpox have shown striking decreases.
Declining immunization rates, however, have made it possible for these highly infectious diseases to make a comeback.
According to the Washington State Department of Health, the proportion of kindergartners in Clallam County with all of the required immunizations fell from 91 percent in 2004-05 to 76 percent in 2014-15.
During the same period, immunization coverage rates were even lower in Jefferson County, dropping below 60 percent in five of those years.
Last school year, only 87 percent of kindergartners in Clallam County were immunized against measles, while in Jefferson County, only 78 percent were protected.
These levels were well below the 95 percent coverage rate necessary for community immunity against measles.
Not surprisingly, in February and March of 2015, Clallam County experienced its first measles cases in over 20 years.
The outbreak that resulted in six cases, including two school-age children, led to the death of a young woman with an underlying illness and cost over $250,000 in response efforts.
We must do better at immunizing ourselves and our children to protect the vulnerable people in our community.
School vaccination requirements play a critical role in increasing childhood immunization rates, preventing outbreaks in schools and protecting the whole community.
State regulations establish vaccination requirements for schoolchildren based on national immunization guidelines.
Students attending public and private schools in Washington state must be immunized against chickenpox, diphtheria, German measles, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, polio, tetanus and whooping cough.
New this fall, all students in seventh and eighth grade will need to show proof of having received two doses of chickenpox vaccine or a health care provider’s previous diagnosis of chickenpox.
If parents want to claim an exemption for their children, they must be counseled by a Washington state licensed health care practitioner (medical doctor, naturopathic doctor, osteopathic doctor, advanced registered nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant) about the benefits and risks of vaccinations and parental responsibilities, if they choose not to vaccinate.
All parents requesting an exemption must be counseled, unless the parent’s religious beliefs do not allow treatment by professionals, and they must complete a Certificate of Exemption for their child.
If a child is not up to date on the required vaccinations and does not have a Certificate of Exemption, the child may be excluded from school until the required vaccinations are received.
Unvaccinated children will be excluded from school if a case of a vaccine-preventable disease (against which the child has not been vaccinated) occurs in the school.
It is a lose-lose situation.
The child is not protected against the disease and misses school.
Make this school year a win-win.
Vaccinations are safe and effective.
Get your child vaccinated to protect your child’s health and protect the health of your community.
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This guest column appeared in the print edition of the Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015, Peninsula Daily News.
