Student vaccination rates down for three serious diseases

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Student vaccination rates down for three serious diseases

The local health unit is encouraging parents to Protect their children this

spring with safe, free vaccines

(PETERBOROUGH) Student vaccination rates for three serious diseases are down,

and that has local medical officer of health Dr. na Pellizzari concerned.

At Wednesday’s board of health meeting, Dr. Pellizzari expressed concern over

declining vaccination rates of grade seven and eight students for HPV,

meningitis and heptitis B.

“The low vaccination rates for HPV, meningitis and Hepatitis B mean that more of

our youth could face serious health risks if they aren’t protected,” Dr.

Pellizzari in a statement.

“We urge parents to get their children immunized as these are safe, effective

vaccines that are available for free in schools to grade seven and eight

students. Health Unit nurses will be in schools this spring so it’s not too late

to get students vaccinated.”

The local health unit reports that immunization rates declined among grade seven

students from 2007/08 to 2010/11 from 71 per cent to 66 per cent for Hepatitis B

(first dose) and from 78 per cent to 65 per cent for meningitis coverage. HPV

vaccine uptake for grade eight girls remains low at only 58 per cent. Dr.

Pellizzari said ideally these rates should be more than 80 per cent for good

public protection.

“Hepatitis B and HPV are known carcinogens and highly infectious, so I can’t

stress enough how important it is to protect our young people before they become

sexually active,” stated Dr. Pellizzari.

“The incidence of meningococcal disease often peaks during adolescence and

causes a serious infection of the lining of the brain that strikes quickly,

making children extremely ill very fast. Many parents are having their one-year

olds vaccinated but with more than one-third of our local students still not

protected, I strongly encourage parents to get their school-aged children

vaccinated.”

Dr. Pellizzari also noted that parents who choose to get their daughters

vaccinated with the HPV vaccine in grade eight for free will avoid the $400 cost

to get them immunized later in life.

Parents can find out when Health Unit nurses will be visiting their child’s

school and download consent forms for each vaccine from the Health Unit’s

website www.pcchu.ca. Health Unit nurses will have all three vaccines on hand

when visiting schools in the spring and can immunize any student with signed

consent forms. The health unit is also undertaking a number of activities to

increase vaccination rates, such as holding more evening clinics at its Hospital

Drive location and developing a social media campaign.