Public Health-Seattle & King County is encouraging parents to update their children's immunizations now to keep them safe this upcoming school year.
Some school grades have new vaccine requirements this fall:
• Sixth-graders who are 11 years old and older and have not been vaccinated against tetanus in the last five years should receive the tetanus, diphtheria and pertusis (Tdap) vaccine.
• Children entering kindergarten, first and sixth grades will need to receive their varicella vaccine for chickenpox or document that they've had the disease.
• Children entering kindergarten through 10th grade must now receive three doses of hepatitis B.
• Children entering kindergarten through 12th grade must receive two doses each of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
State law required children to have specific immunizations before they attend school. Children who are not fully immunized may be excluded from attending school or child care during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, possibly lasting weeks.
An infected child also can spread an illness to others, like those with a weakened immune system, pregnant women or infants.
Regular health-care providers can provide immunizations, as do Public Health immunization clinic sites, which can provide them on a sliding-fee scale.
More information can be found on-line at www.metrokc/health/immunization/school.htm. Or call the information line: 296-4949.
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