State requirements that children get vaccinated for hepatitis B and chicken pox have many school systems scrambling to keep their children in class.
Baltimore City has inoculated nearly 100 percent of its children according to the prior standard, spokeswoman Vanessa Pyatt said. However, 15 percent of its 83,000 children have yet to be protected to the new standard.
“We actually launch a major public awareness campaign every year over the summer,” Pyatt said. “The additional effort this year was devoted to making sure our families were aware of the new regulations that are kicking in.”
For the most part, school systems focus on new children in the lower grades and those moving into their jurisdictions who may not have been on the same vaccination schedule in their old town, Pyatt said.
For the 2006-07 school year, however, all children must be vaccinated for chicken pox and hepatitis B, in addition to the standard measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations Maryland required in years past. School systems reported nearly 100 percent compliance with state vaccination requirements through the end of this year.
Hepatitis B can cause lifelong infection, cirrhosis or scarring of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure and death; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chicken pox can survive in the nervous system and recur later in life as shingles ? a painful rash surfacing around nerve endings under the skin.
Children who are not vaccinated will not be allowed to return to class after Jan. 1.
“We?re trying very hard to make sure no student misses a single day of class,” said Kara Calder, spokeswoman for Baltimore County Schools. “I think we have made significant progress.”
Matthew McCarron contributed to this report.
