The Department of Public Health is calling on parents to keep their children\u2019s vaccination shots up to date, as the Immunization Program plans to begin implementing a law that would allow the \u201csuspension\u201d of students who are found noncompliant with the law.<\/p>\n
Citing the importance of immunization, Jeremy T. Sasamoto said yesterday that all students in public or private schools \u201chave to be up to date with their shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sasamoto said a majority of the public are not aware of Public Law 6-10, which requires parents to keep their children\u2019s shots up to date.<\/p>\n
He said parents will receive a notification of delinquency if their children do not have up-to-date shots, adding that these parents will \u201chave two weeks to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not, their child can be suspended from school until all shots are up to date,\u201d said Sasamoto at the flu shot event at the Aging Center.<\/p>\n
These vaccination shots, based on the CNMI Recommended Immunization Schedule, are:<\/p>\n
-Hepatitis B at birth; <\/p>\n
-DTaP, E-IPV, Hib, PCV13, Rotavirus, and Hepatitis B for children 2 months old; <\/p>\n
-DTaP, E-IPV, PCV13, and Rotavirus at 4 months; <\/p>\n
-DTap, E-IPV, Hib, PCV13, Rotavirus, and Hepatitis B at 6 months; <\/p>\n
-MMR, and Varicella or Chicken Pox at 12 months; <\/p>\n
-DTap, PCV-13, and Hib for 15-18 months; <\/p>\n
-DTaP, E-IPV, MMR, Hepatitis A, and Varicella at 4 to 6 years old; and <\/p>\n
-DTap, MCV, and Hepatitis A at 11 to 18 years.<\/p>\n
Sasamoto disclosed that they will start their educational outreach campaign about the need for immunization starting Wednesday next week. <\/p>\n
He said they will begin the outreach at the Public School System\u2019s Head Start Centers once they get the roster. If not, then they will start with elementary schools on island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will start enforcing the law beginning November,\u201d added Sasamoto.<\/p>\n
The program manager noted that their office \u201cwill provide the additional shots at schools for their convenience\u201d if a child is not up to date with the required shots.<\/p>\n
According to Sasamoto, there is \u201ca lot of misinformation\u201d circulating that causes parents not to get their children immunized with certain vaccines.<\/p>\n
For example, there are those who believe that the MMR vaccine is related to autism, based on a study conducted by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that \u201ccaused worldwide scare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sasamoto, however, dismissed this, saying that the research study was later discovered to be fraudulent.<\/p>\n
Another example is a \u201cpreservative\u201d believed to be added to the MMR vaccine and linked to autism. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut that preservative hasn\u2019t been used since 1995 and there is no scientific evidence that shows its link to autism,\u201d explained Sasamoto.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that \u201cvaccines are safe and cost-effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the start of their flu vaccination campaign, Sasamoto said they will be handing out consent forms to parents for their children to get the flu shots.<\/p>\n
Attached to the consent form is the letter regarding the law and the need to have the students\u2019 shots be kept up to date.<\/p>\n
To get your child immunized or for more information, call 236-8745, 236-8780, 236-8781 (Saipan), 433-9233 (Tinian), 532-9457 (Rota).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Public Health is calling on parents to keep their children\u2019s vaccination shots up to date, as the Immunization Program plans to begin implementing a law that would allow the \u201csuspension\u201d of students who are found noncompliant with the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}