The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department is working to ensure children receive their immunizations.
The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department has exceeded an immunization goal set by the Centers for Disease Control, hitting a 93 percent coverage rate for primary childhood immunization series.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment audited 100 children's records this spring to check how many of the children continued to receive the immunizations.
Barbara Schnitker, director of nurses at the health department, said the CDC wants at least 90 percent of children up to 2 years of age to have up-to-date immunizations by the year 2000.
"If we have a highly immunized population, we're much less likely to have disease outbreaks such as measles, mumps and whooping cough," Schnitker said. "Polio has pretty much been eliminated in this hemisphere, but that doesn't mean there aren't cases in other countries.
"The vaccines are highly affective," she said.
Children should have vaccinations at two months, four months, six months and one year. By two years old, they should have received four DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), three polio, one MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), three Hib (haemophilus influenza b) and three Hepatitis B immunizations.
The health department keeps records, and sends parents reminders by mail or phone when their children's immunizations need to be updated. If repeated calls or letters aren't answered, a health department employee will visit the home.
If the parent takes a child to a private doctor, the health department will update their files.
"We are rather aggressive in terms of following up," Schnitker said.
The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department has conducted 5,566 vaccinations this year. That number includes all immunizations, including those for adults planning to travel. It doesn't include flu shots.
-- Chris Koger's phone message number is 832-7126. His e-mail address is ckoger@ljworld.com.
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