Shots Before School

It’s an effort to keep children from missing classes….and infecting others…..the requirement that children be inoculated against childhood diseases….

Sue Denny, who runs the program for the state health department, says about 98 percent of Missouri’s school children get their vaccinations. Most of the rest have medical or religious exemptions.

Denny says children entering kindergarten four or five DTAP shots–diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus–which most of them got most of those shots when they were babies. They need at least three polio shots, and two shots for measles, mumps and rubella shots, two hepatitis B shots, and one chicken pox shot, which is for children through second grade.

The Centers for Disease Control is recommending a second chicken pox shot after second grade.

A child who does not have the inoculations will be banned from school if there is an outbreak of any of these diseases. She says 35 to 40 percent of children get their inoculations through public health agencies; the rest use private doctors.