— from Anne Presson for Orcas Island Health Care District —
Get a jump start on all things back to school. Schedule an appointment now to review the vaccines your child may need for this school year. The Orcas Island Health Care District encourages you to call either the Orcas Family Health Center (360-376-7778) or UW Medicine Orcas Island Clinic (360-376-2561) to set up an appointment.
Over the last few years, Washington State has seen outbreaks of Measles, Mumps, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), and Chicken Pox. Immunizations can help reduce and even stop the spread of these diseases. For more information on outbreaks, immunizations, and other topics, visit the Washington State Department of Health website at www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Schools/Immunization.
Both medical clinics on Orcas participate in the Washington State Childhood Vaccine Program, which provides publicly purchased vaccines for all children under 19 years of age. The program supplies all the vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the vaccines are provided at no cost to all children seen at the clinics. The Washington State Childhood Vaccine program eliminates or reduces cost barriers to receiving childhood vaccinations. You can read more at: www.doh.wa.gov/ForPublicHealthandHealthcareProviders/PublicHealthSystemResourcesandServices/Immunization/ChildhoodVaccineProgram.
It’s also important that as a parent you are up to date on your vaccinations. OFHC and UW Medicine Orcas Island Clinic provide an array of vaccines for adults. Be sure to schedule a visit with your provider to learn more.
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The Influenza season in the Northern hemisphere starts in six weeks. Things we need to be reminded of each year are that the mix of virus variants we prepare our vaccines to cover, are based on the prevalent strains found during the Southern hemisphere Influenza season. But the critter continues to evolve so the match between vaccine and virus changes, making its effectiveness variable from year to year. Does this make sense?
So the upshot is that we cannot depend on minimal “herd immunity” -depending on the good health sense of your neighbors to protect your own self- but must think about maximal immunization as our best strategy:
if you can get the vaccine do so.
The person you are protecting may not be yourself as much as those you share the air with: older folk, little people, and those with chronic illnesses that weaken them. The vaccine cuts an older person’s risk of hospitalization by half, AND once hospitalized it cuts the risk of death by half again. It is airborne and you become contagious a day or two before you know you are sick so:
if you can get the vaccine do so.
And while we are thinking about immunizations, we need to remember that Orcas with its constant stream of visitors and their bugs, happens to be in one of the worst counties in one of the worst states for vaccinations. Yes it’s true.
A longtime Orcas resident told me “vaccines make me ill,” so they don’t get immunizations. OK, but –
Immunizations are not about you. –
Talk to your Doc, there are alternative forms of some vaccines. And even so, if you must rely on your neighbor’s immunity to protect yourself, then encourage them to become aware.
The speed of modern transportation, and the mix of human and animal populations in an overpopulated globe has lead to increased exposure to increasingly deadly strains of disease-causing critters.
Immunizations are not about you,
but about community.
Leif makes really good points. Health promotion / disease prevention is important cross the life span. Seniors especially should take advantage of flu shots early through private health care providers, at pharmacies or the public health department, which makes them available at the Senior Center building in October & November.
“The person you are protecting may not be yourself as much as those you share the air with: older folk, little people, and those with chronic illnesses.”
Parents, families and caregivers can carry a bug without themselves feeling ill, and those that are more susceptible are so because their immune response, even to a vaccine, is weak. Again, it is a community thing, not primarily up to the vulnerable to act, they are after all, “vulnerable.”
Read what is in those vaccines before you shoot up, or do it to your kids…