Vaccine (Associated Press/ Charles Rex Arbogast)
With the start of school, the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Education are deeply concerned that not all children in the commonwealth were fully vaccinated before the start of classes.
In most states, children are required to have all recommended immunizations prior to entering school. However, current Pennsylvania regulations allow students in kindergarten through 12th grade to be admitted to school provisionally for up to eight months if evidence of at least one dose of each of the required antigen for vaccines is given. This includes vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, varicella, and hepatitis B.
The parent or guardian must then submit a plan for completion of the required immunizations to the school, where the plan is supposed to be reviewed and updated every 60 days. This “window” not only places a time-consuming, bureaucratic burden on school districts but presents a very real and unnecessary risk for children to become infected and potentially spread preventable, communicable diseases.
In order to increase the number of children who start school properly vaccinated, the state has launched a statewide education and awareness campaign, “Don’t Wait. Vaccinate.”
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