A new law requires children in 7th through 12th grades be vaccinated against the highly contagious disease that can be fatal to younger children.
By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times
School and public health administrators are urging parents to get their children vaccinated for protection against a highly contagious bacterial infection or they won’t be permitted to attend class in the fall.
Vaccine booster shots for pertussis, a severe whooping cough, are now required by law for any public school students entering 7th through12th grade in the fall semester.
The requirement, passed last year under Assembly Bill 354, went into effect July 1 and mandates parents to provide proof to the school district that their children have been immunized against pertussis. Administrators said they began getting the word out to parents early this year.
“We’ve been informing parents of this since about January 1; most parents are aware,” Lora Morn, coordination nurse for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, said.
However, Morn said at least 40 percent of students in Malibu have not been vaccinated yet.
“[Among] Malibu schools, the fewest have been done,” she said. “Most kids have not had it [the vaccine].”
Proof from a doctor that a child has received the immunization will be needed in order for them to register for and begin classes on Aug. 30, the first day of school.
An easily contagious airborne disease, whooping cough can be fatal in younger children whose respiratory systems cannot handle its symptoms, said Dr. David Baron, a local family physician in Malibu.
“Getting the pertussis booster is a matter of both personal protection against a very unpleasant case of bronchitis for the individual who gets the vaccine, and a case of social responsibility, in order to protect newborn babies for whom pertussis is a potentially fatal case,” Baron said. “It’s a way to prevent a really terrible illness.”
Baron said approximately 10,000 new pertussis cases are diagnosed annually; last year, there were 10 infant deaths in California on account of the disease. Two infants within the last six months, Morn said, were hospitalized locally for pertussis, but recovered. Considering that many local teens and preteens have younger siblings, vaccinating them against developing the illness is a safe step to take, the two said.
“They’re trying to catch kids at the point their immunity is wearing off from their childhood vaccine series,” Baron said. “How do you identify and reach a demographic? You just try to catch kids when they’re in school.”
Morn said state and local public health officials concluded that most childhood vaccines wear off at about the age of 5 in children, so they need to be re-vaccinated again to build up what she called, a “herd immunity” in classrooms across the school district.
“Kids whom are breastfed get some immunity from their mothers, but it’s not sufficient for their age group,” she said.
The vaccine, known as Tdap, according to the state Department of Education, is a triple tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis booster, and is acellular, meaning that children won’t experience any side effects from receiving the shot. Baron said a prior, cellular version of the vaccination was known to cause seizures and fevers in children, but was reformulated about 15 to 20 years ago.
Morn said the school district would be conducting a series of vaccination clinics this summer. Parents can also leave proof of immunization at a special drop-off box located at the school district’s main office, on 16th Street in Santa Monica.
In Malibu, Point Dume Pharmacy is offering the Tdap booster for $65. At Malibu Urgent Care, pertussis vaccinations cost $205 for new patients, $195 for established patients.
More info on pertussis, AB 354, and Tdap can be found online at www.shotsforschool.org