Orange County Health Care Agency
Release: August 18, 2014
Contact: Nicole Stanfield, nstanfield@ochca.com, 714-834-2178
Back-to-School Immunizations
(Santa Ana) – With the new school year starting, vaccinations should be included in every back-to-school list. Parents are reminded to have their children up-to-date on required vaccinations before school starts. “Immunizations are a safe and effective way to help children stay healthy in school and protect them, and the people around them, from vaccine preventable illnesses that can be very serious,” said Dr. Eric Handler, Orange County Health Officer.
While vaccines have significantly reduced the incidence of many diseases in the United States, such as measles, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis B, and chickenpox, they still pose a public health threat. This year, Orange County has experienced increases in both measles and whooping cough cases, in part due to inadequate vaccinations of children, with 235 cases of whooping cough and 22 cases of measles reported.
State law requires children to receive certain immunizations prior to attending public and private elementary and secondary schools, child care centers, family day care homes, nursery schools, day nurseries and developmental centers. “Be sure that children are up-to-date on all required immunizations, including an adolescent whooping cough (Tdap) booster for incoming 7th graders,” Handler said.
Required immunizations are a part of preventative health care and are generally covered free-of-charge by health insurance. If your infant or child does not have health insurance or you cannot afford immunizations, the Health Care Agency provides free and low cost immunizations for infants and children ages 2 months to 18 years at our clinic in Santa Ana. For more information, please call the Health Referral Line at 800-564-8448 or visit the Health Care Agency website.
Each year in August, the importance of back-to-school immunizations is emphasized as part of National Immunization Awareness month.
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