Middle school and high school students who have not received their required immunizations before returning to school next month will have more opportunity to do so this year.

The Porter County Health Department is expanding their schedule of days as well as setting aside more room to give adolescents their vaccinations before school bells ring.

The health department’s nursing supervisor Connie Rudd said more hours will be set aside by the clinic to meet their needs. The Porter County council recently approved an additional $30,000 at their meeting in June to cover additional labor costs.

Rudd said the department will now be able to hold more clinic days at both the Porter County Administration Building in Valparaiso and the county’s north complex in Portage. Both locations will now include Wednesdays to give immunizations between now and the start of the 2010-2011 school year. Normally, Wednesdays would not be set up as clinic days for the vaccinations by the health department.

The Center of Disease Control requires that students entering grades 6-12 be given a three booster vaccinations: a Tdap immunization, a varicella (known more commonly as “Chickenpox”) booster, and another immunization to prevent the risk of meningitis.

The Tdap, or a tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis combination vaccination, became mandated last year when cases of pertussis, a form of whooping cough, had increased. The county saw 19 cases of pertussis and one fatality, a young infant, just in 2009.

Pertussis can be fatal in infants who do not have fully developed respiratory systems as do adults and adolescents. “What’s happening is we are seeing that the source of infections is actually from an adult or adolescent,” said Rudd, citing recent research done by the CDC.

“It’s just a lingering nasty cough that just won’t go away,” she said.

Pertussis can be spread by contact from mucus membranes of infected persons.

Rudd said that in the past, persons were given doses of the DTaP pertussis vaccination at a very young age before enrolling kindergarten, and it was believed that the vaccines would build up enough immunity to suffice a lifetime. However, more cases of whooping cough have occurred in adults and adolescents who are now the primary transmitters of the disease.

Rudd said the tetanus-diphtheria vaccination has now been given a pertussis component by drug manufactures to sustain that immunity. The Tdap vaccination is anticipated to lower the cases of whooping cough.

Children going into grades 6-12 who have not had chicken pox would need a second dose of the varicella vaccine. Those students would also need to receive the required meningitis booster vaccine.

The three vaccines have been available this summer at the health department. Those who need to make an appointment to receive the vaccines can contact the county health department at 465-3525.

Adults can also receive the Tdap vaccine. According to the CDC, the booster is recommended for people ages 11 to 64.

Also available are doses of the H1N1 vaccine that were given to adults and school children last fall. Because of the decrease in demand, the county council approved to transfer $105,000 in reductions from hourly labor from the H1N1 Response Grant.

“The (vaccines) are still available but there haven’t been many calls for it,” said Rudd.

The transferred grant money will be used to purchase services and equipment for other H1N1 response activities.

Posted 7/15/2010