By Amy Bafumo
abafumo@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Nurses from the Jefferson County Health Department have been administering shots at Louisville-area middle schools to increase immunization compliance rates.

A summer audit by the health department of more than 20,000 student health records showed that 67 percent of students had had the shots they needed. Kentucky law requires that all school-age children be up to date on immunizations in order to attend school.

''Compliance for individual schools ranged from 30 to 73 percent,'' said Phyllis Skonicki, an administrator of immunizations programs at the health department.

A Jefferson County school official who deals with immunization issues was not available to comment.

The health department's audit found that at the time, 3,000 children were not up to date on mumps, measles and rubella shots.

''That's scary,'' Skonicki said. ''Measles is so contagious and if people are worried about West Nile, a measles outbreak would be much worse.''

Specific figures on how many students have received immunizations since the July audit -- through private health-care providers, clinics or the current campaign -- were not available.

''We won't know how many got the shots before school started and brought in legal certificates until mid-November'' -- after the health department's immunization campaign is over, she said. The campaign began Oct. 7 and will continue throughout the month.

Middle schools were targeted because students there are of an age to get their second series of immunizations, said LeAnne Lyons, program director of Partners for a Healthy Louisville.

''We're trying to get those hard-to-reach students,'' she said.

Some vaccines provided in the campaign include an inoculation against hepatitis B and a tetanus-diphtheria booster.

During the July audit, parents of the students who required immunizations were sent a notice, a description of the shots and a permission slip.

''All they need to do is sign the slips and then the shot will be administered,'' Lyons said.

Skonicki said that obtaining signed permission slips often is a problem. ''If the parents do not give us permission, we cannot give the vaccine.''

There is a $10 charge per injection and payments can be made at the time of the shot, but nobody will be denied immunizations because of an inability to pay, she said.

For those not paying at the time, ''Parents will be billed later,'' she said.

After compliance figures become available next month, the schools that raised their compliance rates by at least 50 percent from the original audit will receive a $500 cash bonus from Partners for a Healthy Louisville for their Family Resource and Youth Services Center.

Skonicki said student immunization is a public health issue and is intended to protect against disease and death.

''I think it's going very well,'' she said. ''We're in a school every day and we're giving shots.''