OTTUMWA, IOWA -- As you mark off things on the back to school checklist, one thing you do not want to forget about is ensuring your child has the necessary vaccines.
Wapello County Public Health Director Lynelle Diers said schools create breeding grounds for diseases and it is important to have your vaccines.
The state of Iowa mandates a number of vaccines for kindergarteners and new students from out of state.
Diers said they do audit the schools and if a student does not have at least one dose of three vaccines, they can be taken out of school.
"The classrooms are just breeding grounds. You get one sick student in a classroom and it can go through the whole classroom.”
As students age into high school, some vaccines begin to wear out and some new ones are suggested as well.
“There are no more required vaccines for teenagers, but there are some recommended ones. They recommend the meningitis vaccine, the Gardasil, whish is the Human Papilloma Vaccine (HPV), and a booster of the tetanus.”
One of the vaccines required by the state protects against pertussis, or the whooping cough.
Diers said they have had some cases of pertussis in Wapello County.
She recognized the importance of this vaccine after an outbreak of pertussis in 2005.
“When I started mapping out the cases I could see how contagious it really was. If a student was in a classroom, all the students that sat around that particular individual also contracted pertussis.”
The next open vaccine date for the Wapello County Public Health is next Tuesday, August 24th.
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