Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District board of trustees last week learned that as many as 1,000 students may need booster vaccinations against Whooping Cough before school starts next year.

School nurse Joanne Hasson explained new California law that requires children in grades 7 up to 12th grade to have proof of immunization against Whooping Cough, known formally as Pertussis, before the start of the next school year. The law was based on an influx of confirmed cases of the Whooping Cough, which “has been widespread in California.”

Amador County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Hartmann said officials expect about 75 percent of children entering grades 7-12 have not had a booster shot for Pertussis. Hartmann said “somewhere around 1,000 students will need the vaccine” in Amador County, before the start of the 2011-2012 school year.

Parents must prove that students have had the Pertussis booster shot after the age of 7. Anyone not showing proof of having the booster shot will be given a “notice of exclusion from school.” The notice has a space for a date by which the student must notify of the immunization or the district “will exclude your student from school.” The notice said: “We regret that we must take this action, but state law requires that students must be immunized to attend school.”

Hartmann said after this year, it will only be required of students entering 7th grade. He urged families to take their children to their “home doctor,” to avoid the rush to shot clinics. Calaveras County held a Pertussis clinic March 4, but only vaccinated 37 kids in 7 hours.

He said a “leading anti-vaccination group in the country” has sent e-mails dissuading people from the vaccinations. Hartmann said “vaccinations clearly have saved millions of lives.” He said vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths have decrease by 99 percent.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.