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June 27, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“Parents Prodded to Get Shots for Schoolchildren”

Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (06/26/03) P. T3; Moreno, Sylvia

District of Columbia public school officials say that parents should get their children immunized this summer so they can enroll in school this autumn, estimating that 14,000 students--20 percent of the city’s public school population--lack the required vaccines.  At least 10,000 of the students should have gotten their tetanus-diphtheria booster shots last autumn, but a nationwide vaccine shortage got them a waiver instead; however, now that production is back to normal, the students should get immunized, says Dr. Karyn Berry, the chief of the D.C. Health Department’s Bureau of Communicable Disease Control.  At the beginning of last year, school officials barred over 200 students from attending school because they did not show proof of immunization after a deadline, but officials say that almost all the students eventually showed proof.  The city Health Department has run immunization programs for children, as have hospitals and clinics.  According to Berry, D.C. follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory on vaccine practices for schoolchildren, and she explains that noncomplying students usually are missing a tetanus-diphtheria booster or have not finished the hepatitis B series. Berry notes that some parents may forget the importance of vaccinations due to the virtual disappearance of some childhood diseases.