Keeping Serious Diseases At Bay: School-Based Vaccination Clinics Start Sept 22
Written by admin, September 17, 2014
September 17, 2014 – Parents Reminded to Provide Signed Consent Forms for Children Receiving HPV, Meningococcal and Hepatitis B Immunizations
Local grade 7 and 8 students will be offered free vaccines in schools by Peterborough Public Health starting September 22.
Public Health Nurses will be visiting all schools throughout the city and county of Peterborough in the coming weeks to immunize all grade 7 students against hepatitis B and meningococcal disease, and grade 8 girls against HPV. All vaccines offered in school clinics are free of charge, safe and provide protection against these very serious diseases.
“We want to make it easy for parents to protect their kids by offering these vaccination clinics in the schools,” explained Edwina Dusome, Manager of Infectious Disease Programs at Public Health. “Parents often have questions about vaccines so we encourage them to give us a call to discuss, and to seek out credible online sources as well based on good science.”
All grade 7 students will be eligible to receive vaccines to protect them against hepatitis B, a disease that can cause permanent liver damage and cancer, and meningococcal disease, a serious infection of the blood and fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Grade 8 girls are entitled to receive the vaccine for protection against HPV, a virus that can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer.
While all the vaccines are recommended by the Ontario Immunization Schedule, the meningococcal vaccine is now required for students under the Immunization of School Pupils Act. This vaccine provides coverage against more strains of meningococcal disease than the meningococcal vaccine most children received when they were younger.
Public health nurses will be in schools giving immunizations throughout the fall so parents are strongly encouraged to return the consent forms to the schools so their students can receive the vaccine. For further information, please call Public Health at (705) 743-1000.
To find out when public health nurses will be visiting schools, please visit www.peterboroughpublichealth.ca.
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For further information, please contact:
Brittany Cadence, Communications Supervisor
(705) 743-1000, ext. 391