Immunizations effective, health officials agree

The start of a new school year is just around the corner and one item on parents’ to-do lists is having their children immunized.

Health agencies, clinics, pharmacies and other organizations have been holding health fairs and other events to make sure students and younger children receive their shots.

“It’s actually going extremely well,” said Laura Treviño, associate regional director of the Texas A&M Center for Housing and Urban Development Colonias Program.

The program teams up with state agencies, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, businesses and others to provide services and information at the fairs. The program has 10-12 health fairs a year and volunteers help between 120-300 families at any given event, she said.

Treviño said the health fairs help reach more people because they are close to where people live and offer services at reduced costs, so people don’t have to worry about transportation or money to pay for services.

Summer is usually a busy time for health fairs because families are planning for sending their children back to school. But sometimes the events will focus on certain immunizations, like influenza vaccines for the elderly, she said.

Dr. Molly Droge, a Dallas pediatrician and a physician adviser to the Texas Medical Association’s Be Wise, Immunize program said health fairs help reach uninsured children and families.

“Immunization is the safest and most effective way to protect children’s health,” Droge.

Since starting the Be Wise, Immunize program in 2004, Texas’ immunization rate has greatly improved.

According to the National Immunization Study, Texas was ranked 41st in the country in 2004 in administering vaccinations from newborn to 3 years old. A year later it was ranked 24th. Rates for school-age children were better because of state requirements to vaccinate students, Droge said.

Eduardo Olivarez, chief administrative officer of the Hidalgo County Health Department, said the health department participates in many programs with other agencies that promote immunizations and sees that these events do help in vaccinating people.

There are 14 mandatory vaccinations for students to receive to attend school.

The department also highly recommends vaccinating children for bacterial meningitis and human papillomavirus, although those two vaccines are not required, Olivarez said.

Since January, the department’s clinics have administered about 138,000 vaccinations, Olivarez said.

He said the department is seeing more students come in for vaccinations because there are more people moving into the county.

While the number of young children receiving vaccines remains high, the number of teenagers following up with booster shots is decreasing, Olivarez said.

He encourages high school-age students to update their vaccinations.