Keeping current on homework and vaccines

Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2019

By KIM HORTON
Times-News Columnist

School is back in session—finally! Parents have completed their checklists for school supplies. Schedules are still hit or miss. Homework can be a challenge. Is anything easy this time of year?

If your child is up-to-date on vaccines, then the answer is yes. Most vaccine-preventable diseases are rare in North Carolina due to the success of vaccinations. Vaccines have greatly reduced and, in some cases, eliminated infectious disease threats that once caused major suffering and illness, according to the American Public Health Association.

By keeping your child current on vaccines, you are helping to maintain the progress made so far.

The past two years county schools experienced outbreaks of whooping cough, also known as pertussis. Because of public health monitoring and response, the outbreaks were limited. But credit also goes to those children current with the pertussis vaccine, which helped keep the outbreak in check. The situation could have been much worse without the protection the vaccine provided.

Measles continues to be a concern. Not a single case of measles has been identified in North Carolina. However, except for South Carolina, our state is surrounded by states that are experiencing measles cases—Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 22, 1,215 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 30 states. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. The likelihood of experiencing a case of measles locally continues to grow.

What’s also concerning is how contagious measles is. If one person has it, up to nine out of 10 people around him or her will also become infected if they are not protected. An infected person can spread the disease to others even before knowing he or she has the disease—from four days before developing the measles rash through four days afterward.

Measles can cause serious complications. As of Aug. 22, 125 of the people who got measles this year were hospitalized, and 65 reported having complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis. The majority of cases are among people who were not vaccinated against measles.

The best preparation to avoid measles is to make sure you are current with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Two doses of this vaccine are about 97 percent effective at preventing measles if exposed to the virus. You don’t want to be caught off guard if an outbreak occurs.

If we have a confirmed measles case in Henderson County, the health director is prepared to issue control measures of isolation and quarantine to limit the spread. This could have implications for both work and school attendance for those not immunized.

Staying current also includes the annual flu vaccine for everyone six months of age or older. A common push-back public health hears is that the flu vaccine can give you the flu. The flu vaccine cannot cause flu illness; however, it can cause mild side effects that may be mistaken for flu.

Common side effects from the flu shot include soreness, redness, and/or swelling from the shot, headache, fever, muscle aches and nausea. These side effects are not the flu. If experienced at all, these effects are usually mild and last only one-two days.

How well the flu vaccine works to prevent flu can range from season to season and can vary depending on who is getting vaccinated. Nevertheless, if you take the flu vaccine and do get sick, your illness is likely to be milder than it would have been otherwise.

Seasonal flu activity often begins to increase in October, most commonly peaks between December and February, but can last as late as May. CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older get a flu vaccine by the end of October. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body to protect against flu virus infection. The 2018-2019 flu season lasted a record-breaking 21 weeks.

Influenza (flu) is a contagious disease which can lead to serious illness, including pneumonia. Even healthy people can get sick enough to miss work or school for a significant amount of time or even be hospitalized.

Those at increased risk of flu-related complications include pregnant women, young children, older people and people with certain chronic medical conditions like asthma, diabetes and heart disease.

The Health Department will be offering flu vaccine again this year to all Henderson County Public Schools students in October. For more information or to use the Flu Vaccine Finder tool, visit HendersonCountyFlu.org.

If you have questions about your immunity or vaccine records, contact your healthcare provider or call the Health Department Immunization Clinic at (828) 694-6015. For more information about the Immunization Clinic, visit HendersonCountyNC.gov/health/page/immunizations.

Kim Horton is the communications manager for the Henderson County Department of Public Health. She can be reached at khorton@hendersoncountync.gov.

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