BISMARCK, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – North Dakota’s state department of health have announced new rules regarding school immunizations, set to take effect in the 2018 academic year.
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for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that too many students were being allowed to slip through the cracks and avoid vaccinations. As a result, diseases such as whooping cough and hepatitis B are not being adequately prevented. Why are these changes needed and what are the new requirements?
Why are New Rules Needed?
While vaccination rates for the first dose is high, as few as 30% of 16-17 year olds are taking a second dose. This is a problem because immunizations fade over time and boosters are required to maintain effectiveness. Schools are taking steps to tackle childhood obesity, but health is more than just BMI.
Regardless of diet and exercise, anyone can catch a disease. The concept of herd immunity requires a large enough percentage of the population be vaccinated in order for a whole community to be protected from a disease. North Dakota has not reached the critical mass needed to keep everyone protected.
What’s Changing?
An additional dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine will now be required for all North Dakota students in grades 11-12. Failing to receive the vaccine by October 1st 2018 can lead to exclusion from school.
Furthermore, from January 1st, anyone attending child care will need to be vaccinated against hepatitis B. Previously, the whooping cough vaccine was only given to those in grade 7. Now it will be required for anyone in grades 7-12.
If a student is off school the week the vaccines are administered, they may end up never receiving one at all. Also, they may transfer from a state which did not require the vaccine into a North Dakota grade 8 class. The new rules ensure that they will be still be immunized.
This should increase the rate of vaccinations to the state target of 95%. Finding effective treatment for whooping cough can be difficult, so prevention is much better than a cure. Even for students who do make a full recovery, the disease can quickly spread if enough students are not vaccinated.
These changes do not mean that children will be receiving any new vaccinations. Instead, they are being implemented to increase the percentage of immunized students. By requiring older students take a booster and increasing the number of grades requiring vaccinations, the number of students suffering preventable diseases will decrease significantly.