Immunizations need to be updated as school nears

The Galveston County Health District is reminding parents as the new school year approaches they need to make sure their children’s immunizations are up to date.

Schools require children to be properly immunized. Each year in August, the importance of back-to-school immunizations is emphasized as part of National Immunization Awareness Month.

“Vaccines are a great public health achievement,” Dr. Mark Guidry, Galveston County Health Authority, said. “Every year, our immunization clinics see hundreds of parents and children seeking to meet school-entry vaccination requirements. The back-to-school rush is our largest immunization effort each year. While we are glad to see children receiving required immunizations, we remind parents the best protection is having their children immunized on time, and by doing so they can avoid the long lines during the back-to-school rush.”

Guidry points out there have been changes when it comes to school immunization requirements, which take effect Aug. 1. Changes affect mainly students entering kindergarten and seventh grade.

All immunizations must be completed by the first day of attendance at public and private schools.

The vaccines and new requirements are:

• Hepatitis A vaccine: Students entering kindergarten statewide must have had two doses of the hepatitis A vaccine.

• Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine: Students entering kindergarten must have had two doses of the MMR vaccine. Students in first through 12th grades must continue to meet the current requirement, which is two doses of a measles-containing vaccine and one dose each of mumps and rubella vaccine.

• Varicella vaccine: Students entering kindergarten and seventh grade must have had two doses. Students in first through sixth grades and eighth through 12th grades must continue to meet the current requirement, which is one dose of varicella vaccine or documentation of previous illness with a written statement from a physician, school nurse or the child’s parent or guardian.

• Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis-containing vaccine (Tdap): Students entering seventh grade must have had one dose of Tdap vaccine. Students in seventh grade must have had a booster dose of Tdap but only if it has been five years since their last dose of a tetanus-containing vaccine. Students in eighth through 12th grades must have had a booster dose of Tdap if it has been 10 years since their last dose of a tetanus-containing vaccine.

• Meningococcal vaccine: Students entering seventh grade must have had one dose.

Due to space limitations, immunization clinics in Dickinson and Texas City are relocated to facilities in La Marque where the health district will be hosting their seventh annual Kids Health Fest, Aug. 6 through Aug. 27, to better accommodate the crowd and related activities.

Vaccinations will be given in the La Marque office, 1207 Oak St., on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On Wednesdays, immunizations will be given from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Immunizations also can be obtained at the Galveston Immunization Clinic in the Island Community Center, 4700 Broadway, which will be open Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The health district also has scheduled several community immunization clinics at the following locations:

• Aug. 8: Texas City 4C’s Clinic, 2000 Texas Ave., 10 a.m. to noon;

• Aug. 11: League City Wal-Mart, 1701 West FM 646, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and

• Aug. 22, Mall of the Mainland, 10000 Emmett F. Lowry Expressway, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Parents are asked to bring their child’s immunization record with them.

Some children might already be in the electronic immunization registry, known as ImmTrac. For those children, all a parent needs to provide is the child’s name and date of birth to verify needed immunizations.

If there is no record for a child, parents will be given the opportunity to enroll their child in ImmTrac, which makes their child’s immunization records electronically available in frequent circumstances when parents do not have a paper immunization record available.

Staff also will be using this time to educate parents about the dangers of lead poisoning and encourage testing of children 1 to 6 years of age.

For information or to volunteer, call 409-938-2244 or visit gchd.org.