Kids will be heading back to school next week and Hastings Prince Edward Public Health want to make sure they’re ready.
Bill Sherlock, Program Manager at Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, says making sure your kids are immunized before they head back to School is important. He says with them being around each other all day, sharing things like pencils and utensils, they’re more prone to infectious diseases than an adult would be. He put it simply when he said that keeping your kids up-to-date with immunizations helped prevent the spread of diseases.
One important vaccine is for Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Sherlock says. Sherlock says there was a small Pertussis out-break a few years ago in Bancroft. It’s a disease that spreads very easily, Sherlock says. Sherlock added that when Public Health reviewed the situation, they found that a lot of people in Bancroft were not immunized for Pertussis.
Sherlock says the way Public Health manages immunizations has changed over the years. They review their records around December, he says, and notify parents if their child is overdue for an immunization.
Sherlock recommends calling your family Physician to see if your child needs to be immunized.