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June 5, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Children to Be Re-Immunized"

Salt Lake City Deseret News (www.desnews.com) (06/04/02) P. B1; Whiting, Lezlee

During a recent quality assurance review, the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) and Uintah Basin Medical Center (UBMC) reported a vaccine storage temperature discrepancy which may have compromised the quality of vaccines stored at the center since 1998.  As a result, health officials are advising parents of children who receive their immunizations in Roosevelt pediatricians offices over the past four years to have their children re-immunized as a precaution.  The vaccine supplies affected include those against tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, polio, HIB, and hepatitis A and B, all of which were received through the state's Vaccines for Children program.  Brad LeBaron, chief executive officer of the UBMC, explained that with the exception of varicella, measles, mumps and rubella, most vaccines need to be stored between 36 degrees and 44 degrees Fahrenheit; if they are stored at below freezing temperatures, it is likely that they will lose some of their potency.  Tri-County Health department director Joseph Schaffer noted that the vaccines administered at the county facility were unaffected by the storage problem, but they will assist the UBMC and the UDOH in a re-immunization program of children who were immunized at private physicians' offices across the state, whose vaccine supply came from the UBMC.  Dr. Greg Staker, chairman of medicine for the UBMC, emphasized that the vaccines are not bad and will not harm the children; the problem is that their decreased potency affects their maximum protectiveness.  Administrators at the UBMC plan to notify by letter or phone call within the next six weeks those parents who need to have their children reimmunized, offering them free vaccines and a $5 gas reimbursement for the inconvenience.

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