Children entering kindergarten and sixth grade who haven’t gotten a chickenpox shot will need to before fall, and preschoolers will need to get the shot even earlier.
The new immunization requirement was approved by the state Board of Health on Jan. 11. It requires children 19 months to kindergarten age attending a licensed child care or preschool to get the shot by July 1.
Kindergarten and sixth-grade students need it by the time school starts. Parents will have to turn in a certificate of immunization as proof their child received the shot.
Exceptions are if a child already has had chickenpox, or if a parent signs an exemption, said Michele Perrin, an immunization and health educator for the state Department of Health.
Each school year, one additional grade, up to grade six, will be added to the requirement until all children 12 and younger are inoculated. For example, first-graders will be added for the 2007-08 school year.
The vaccine has been available for about a decade, Perrin said. It has been recommended for children, but not required.
In Washington, about 77 percent of children are immunized against chicken pox. The national average is nearly 88 percent of children inoculated.
Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease, Perrin said.
With more and more children getting vaccinated, “most people think of chickenpox as a relatively minor infection,” said Dr. Jeff Bissey, who heads the pediatric department at The Everett Clinic.
However, its complications can include skin infections, pneumonia, brain damage and, in rare cases, death.
The Everett Clinic has recommended the shot since 1996. the vaccine is up to 90 percent effective in preventing chickenpox, Bissey said. Vaccinated kids can still get chickenpox, “but tend to get a very mild case,” he added.
Recent studies indicate that the vaccine helps reduce hospitalizations due to complications of chickenpox by 74 percent, said Dr. Jeffrey Wright, medical director of the University of Washington Medical Center’s pediatric care center.
This has helped reduce the ambivalence some parents, and even some doctors, have about children getting the shot, he said.
While often considered a common childhood disease, parents can miss seven to 10 days of work while a child recovers from the virus, Wright said.
The nonprofit clinics run by the Community Health Center of Snohomish County offer the shot during well-child exams to children 12 to 18 months old who have not had chickenpox.
“In all my years of nursing, it is a rare thing that a parent declines that immunization,” said Brandi Varnell, who oversees the center’s immunization program.
The Snohomish Health District has provided the vaccine since 1996. In 2005, the countywide public health agency gave the shots to 708 children, said Charlene Crow-Shambach, who works in the agency’s community health division. It also provided more than 6,000 doses to area clinics for children 18 and younger.
The nonprofit Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic does not offer the shot because a special medical freezer is required for storage, said Dr. Tony Roon, who heads the clinic. However, he said the clinic hopes to begin offering the vaccine this summer.
Sharon Salyer is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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