Students getting their shots at school

Vaccination clinics have been taking place in high schools across Simcoe County and Muskoka this month to provide students with their necessary booster shots.

The annual campaign began on Feb. 11, and will be running for three weeks, as health unit nurses work to reach all secondary students who need immunization updates. It's a massive undertaking each year, with the health unit monitoring the immunization status of nearly 30,000 students in the region's 30 high schools, and distributing the specific vaccines needed for those who are scheduled for boosters.

"We have excellent cooperation from school staff and parents alike," says Cathy Thomson, the supervisor of vaccine preventable disease program at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. "And as a result, at the high school level we end up with immunization rates that exceed 80 per cent of the student population when the clinics are complete."

The process also involves recording students who have not received immunization so they can be safeguarded in the event of infectious disease outbreaks.

"This assures that our school environments are healthy places and our younger citizens are well protected," Thomson said.

Parents should have received consent forms in the mail by now, Thomson added. Those forms need to be signed and sent back to the schools on the day the vaccine clinics are held. Thanks to immunization, less than five per cent of all deaths in Canada were caused by infectious diseases. Before vaccines were developed infectious diseases were the leading cause of death worldwide.

For more information about vaccine clinics in local high schools, call Your Health Connection at 721- 7520 Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., or visit the health unit's website at www.simcoemuskokahealth. org.