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State Officials Say NC Lagging In Immunizations Required For School

(File) KERI BROWN/WFDD

State health officials are urging parents to get their kids immunized before the start of the upcoming school year, and not just for COVID-19.

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services say the number of doctor visits for teen and preteen children dropped last year because of the pandemic. 

That's one reason they say the state is lagging behind in childhood immunizations. That includes shots for such vaccine-preventable diseases as tetanus, diphtheria, measles, and HPV.

According to an NCDHHS press release, as of the end of June, only about 25 percent of youth between 12 and 17 have had at least one COVID-19 shot even though they're eligible for it.

“This vaccine is very safe and effective and can be given at the same time as vaccines required for school,” said State Health Director and NCDHHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson.

Officials are urging parents to talk to their child's pediatrician or health care provider about which vaccines are due by the start of the school year.

 

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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