TL Photo/JOSIE BURKHART Jenna Cunningham, infectious disease and vaccine nurse with the Belmont County Health Department, demonstrates how to administer the vaccine to Gaby Timko, director of nursing.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Health officials say with the start of the new school year fast approaching, the time has come for back-to-school vaccinations.
Anna Reif, vaccine coordinator and vaccine nurse for the Belmont County Health Department, said all Ohio schools require students to get certain vaccinations before they can attend school. She said school nurses do a thorough vaccine audit and know which kids need vaccinations. If a child needs a vaccination, the nurse will send a letter to the parents.
She also stressed the importance of getting vaccinated.
“Vaccines are only important for infectious diseases that can spread easily,” Reif said. “Without the vaccine, we're going to see a lot more of those very harmful (diseases) around the Valley.”
Reif said the vaccination process is based on age, with the first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth or at the first doctor's visit, the second at one to two months of age and the third at a health center.
“Some people want to space out their vaccinations for personal reasons, and that's totally fine,” she says, “but ideally people should get a full vaccination every time they visit the doctor.”
If a patient's primary care physician's office won't administer the required vaccine, they will be encouraged to get it at a health center, she said.
After vaccinating the patient, the health department will fax an updated vaccination record to the school or give the patient a copy of their updated vaccination record to give to the school and inform the patient of their scheduled date for their next dose.
Reiff said he is seeing the most cases among kindergarten, preschool, eighth grade and 12th grade students, who are at the ages when the vaccine is needed, and who tend to show up for appointments in July and early August.
The health department also offers flu shots, and vaccination clinics also administer flu shots, she said.
Pharmacies and urgent care facilities typically don't offer pediatric vaccines, but they do provide booster shots and flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to adolescents and adults, she said.
Vaccines that children need include DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough), Hepatitis B, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), polio, varicella (chickenpox), and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, meningococcal ACWY).
It is up to the schools' discretion to exempt students from vaccinations if parents don't want their children vaccinated, but the health department plans to visit schools to encourage students to get vaccinated, Director of Nursing Gaby Timko said.
She also said the health department will be visiting Shadyside Local Schools on Monday to vaccinate students who are behind on vaccinations.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, vaccines save lives, childhood health screenings are essential, vaccinations are very safe and effective, and people can reduce the chance of spreading disease by staying up to date on vaccinations.
Through its immunization programs, ODH aims to reduce and eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases among Ohio's children, adolescents and adults.
“Vaccines have protected us for many years, like preventing polio, measles and mumps,” ODH Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, MBA, said in a news release. “Before vaccines, these diseases were common and caused great suffering and death each year. When enough people are vaccinated, we can greatly reduce the spread of dangerous diseases from child to child.”
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