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More shots required for school next year By VICKI GUARINO More new immunization requirements for public school students go into effect next year. School and health officials suggest parents start planning vaccinations soon, as one vaccine series takes six months to complete. The 2000 school year will be the last of a three-year phase-in of new immunization standards for Oregon public school students. Students next year will have to be protected against nine illnesses, including chicken pox. For the first time, school officials will be checking the records of seventh-graders to see that they meet requirements. The extension of rules to older students is viewed by health professionals as a way to expand disease-prevention efforts. The rule catches students who would have missed the beginning of the inoculation phase-in. First- and second-graders also will have to prove up-to-date inoculations. Laura Pogue, of the Jackson County immunization office, says most of those students should have been covered from the first two years of the law's implementation. New requirements already are causing confusion, however. Schools have started sending out notices about the registration requirements, but in a couple of instances the information hasn't been accurate, Pogue says. "People are confused about the laws now," she says. "It's easy to not understand it." The immunization office, 1005 E. Main St., offers full inoculations for $10 a shot. Since 1998, Oregon has been increasing the list of diseases from which public school students must be protected. The changes follow the recommendations of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For years, schools had required new students to prove immunizations for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). New requirements by fall of 2000 will add to the list a second measles combination shot, hepatitis and chicken pox. The hepatitis B vaccine, a series of three shots over a six-month period, was added in 1998. The shots are viewed as protection for the future. Adults, not children, are at risk for the disease. It is spread by sexual contact and tainted injections. "It's not to protect them now, but so they have protections when they get older," Pogue says. The second measles-mumps-rubella combination shot was added to the requirements this year. Health officials say the second measles shot offers surer protection. A single shot fails to give protection in about 10 percent of cases. Next year, students will have to be immunized against chicken pox, which can cause serious illness in older children. For additional information about immunization requirements, call the Jackson County immunization office, 774-8209. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA