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October 14, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Students to Be Vaccinated as Part of a Statewide Bioterror Drill" Associated Press (www.ap.org) (10/12/02)
Next month, thousands of Mesa Unified School District high school students will take part in Arizona's largest-ever bioterrorism readiness drill. As part of the drill--which will also include volunteers, disaster relief workers, city, county and state officials from Tucson and other areas of Mesa--state health officials will attempt to vaccinate all the students in one day. According to district spokesperson Judi Willis, high school students in the area need their tetanus shots updated because of new state requirements, and school officials have sent 10,000 permission slips to parents offering the free shots to the students. The drill, to be launched on Nov. 20, will attempt to determine whether Arizona's plan to receive and distribute vaccines and antibiotics will succeed; the antibiotic portion of the test will involve placebos.
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