Health Alerts > 2/24/10 School Vaccines
Date: February 24, 2010
Topic: School vaccines
In 2009, the Indiana State Legislature revised the Indiana code to require all 6th through 12th grade public, charter or private school students to receive additional immunizations against the following diseases:
- Neisseria Meningitis (Meningococcal disease)
- Varicella (Chicken pox)
- Pertussis (Whooping cough)
Students must be vaccinated against all three by the first day of the 2010 school year or they will be excluded from school until they have been vaccinated. To assist families with immunizing their children and to better accommodate the approximately 30,000 students in grade six through twelve in our county, the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health is partnering with Super Shot to provide a month long opportunity for families to get all three of the required vaccines free of charge at 1818 Carew St. We are also relying heavily on the school systems to help to promote this opportunity. We believe if we begin to immunize now, we will minimize the chaos in August!
Our schedule will be as follows;
Monday through Thursday
3 pm to 6:30 PM
March 1 through March 4th March 8th through March 11th
March 15th through March 18th March 22nd through March 25th
Parents will need to bring their child’s shot record and any other proof of infection or past immunization. Children MUST be accompanied by parent or legal guardian (with notarized documentation of guardianship).
FYI: According the to vaccine representative, a child may receive Tdap two years after receiving Td.
Please be sure to promote this clinic in your office if you don’t provide vaccinations or please take every advantage/visit to begin to vaccinate your patients. We will all be sorry if they are excluded from school in August.
In addition, they are requiring that
- All preschool and kindergarten students have 2 doses of varicella vaccine, given on or after the first birthday and separated by 3 months, or have a documented history of chickenpox disease.
- All kindergarten students will be required tohave one of the required doses of polio vaccine given on or after the fourth birthday, and at least 6 months after the previous dose.
You can view the final adopted rule at www.in.gov/legislative/iac/T04100/A00010.PDF?
Please feel free to call with any questions.
Deb McMahan, MD
