SACRAMENTO, California — As many in the Sacramento region prepare to head back to school, it's important to check your child's vaccine status. There is no personal exemption in California. Students who want to attend school in person must be up to date.
Transitional Kindergarten through 12th graders must have all their Polio, D-Tap, Hep-B, MMR and Varicella doses. If your child is on a normal vaccine schedule and hasn't missed any appointments they should have met this requirement before they turned 5. Once they reach 7th grade they need a tetanus booster or T-Dap.
A pediatrician with Sutter Independent Physicians, Dr. Beatrice Tetteh, said many parents have shown concern over the side effects of these vaccines.
"After they receive a vaccine, they may have a fever. Immunizations are the way that we're training up our immune system to be prepared for encountering that infection in the future, and when our bodies fight infections, one of the things we do is our temperatures go up. So, understanding that there might be a little fever. After there might be a little pain at the site, but that's something that we expect and that can happen, and it usually goes away within the first one to two days," Tetteh said.
Regardless, she said it's important to make sure your child is up to date.
"As a clinician, I've never seen someone with Polio. I've never seen anyone with HIB or Haemophilus Influenza type B. I have doctors that trained me that tell me about 'we had to do lumbar punctures every day because all these babies were coming in ill because they had these health conditions that we now immunize against.' We don't see those illnesses anymore. So by keeping up with immunizations, we're able to not have cases of measles, of mumps, fewer cases of chicken pox, and it's one way to keep ourselves healthy, not just now, but in the future," Tetteh said.
If there is a medical reason a student can't get the vaccine, a pediatrician would let you know. If your child is behind on a vaccine, but there's a wait between doses, a doctor can write a note proving the child is scheduled to get it, and that child can typically attend school.
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