Summer
Serves as Reminder to Check Your Child’s Immunization Status
Shots Required for
Kindergarten and School Entry in West Virginia
CHARLESTON,
W.Va. – Health
officials with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
(DHHR) Bureau for Public Health are urging parents to
have their children’s immunization status reviewed early in the summer in order
to be prepared for the start of the 2016-2017 school year.
“Now is the time for parents to begin scheduling
required school vaccinations with their doctor’s offices as many health care
providers will be very busy with immunizations and sports physicals in the
weeks prior to the start of school,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, Commissioner and
State Health Officer. “We need to ensure our children
are safe from vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The required school entry shots for West
Virginia are:
Children entering a West Virginia school for
the first time from kindergarten through grade 12 are required to have
the DTaP, polio, MMR, chickenpox and hepatitis B vaccines. Children who are not
behind schedule can receive school entry “booster” doses.
7th graders must show proof they received a dose of Tdap vaccine, which
protects against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough); and a
dose of the meningitis vaccine.
- 12th graders
must show proof of a dose of Tdap and a second dose of the meningitis
vaccine, if the first dose of the meningitis vaccine was given before the
child’s sixteenth birthday. If the first dose was given after the
16th birthday, a second dose of the meningitis vaccine is not
required.
“Age-appropriate immunization protects the public health of not
only the immunized students from vaccine-preventable diseases, but also reduces
the risk of spreading diseases to classmates including those with weakened
immune systems, pre-school aged children, the elderly and others,” Gupta added.
To
learn more about required school entry immunizations, please visit www.immunization.wv.gov.