Before students can attend their first day of kindergarten, parents are required to make sure their kids are up to date on their vaccines.
After the recent measles outbreak in Arizona, Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine with the Maricopa County Health Department said it’s important for all students be vaccinated before their first day of kindergarten. But, she said that has not been the case.
“The last year of data that we have, we saw about 93.7 percent of kindergarteners were up to date on their vaccines, and that has been slowly trending down. So, that indicates that more and more parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children,” Sunenshine said.
According to the Arizona of health services, 5 percent of Maricopa County’s incoming kindergarteners were not vaccinated in 2013-2014.
Health officials are also asking parents to keep their older students in mind.
Sunenshine said while parents are immunizing their children for meningococcal meningitis, they should also add the vaccine to help prevent the spread of the human papillomavirus (HPV).
And the shot is recommended for boys, too.
“Boys are just as likely, or actually more likely, to spread HPV as girls. So, as long as the boys are spreading it to the girls, they are putting the girls at risk for cervical cancer,” Sunenshine said.
Sunenshine said the HPV vaccine is recommended for all children over the age of 11.
