As the new school year begins, health care providers in South Florida are raising vaccine awareness to avoid having clusters of under-vaccinated children that lead to outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Florida has immunization requirements that apply to children attending daycare facilities as well as public and private schools. But rates in the state, like in the rest of the country, have fallen to below pre-pandemic levels. Earlier this year, a school in Broward even experienced an outbreak of measles — a disease considered eradicated in the year 2000.
“We always recommend vaccinations, especially when they’re gonna be around more kids,” said Claudia Belgrano, a nurse practitioner with Community Health of South Florida, Inc., known as CHI. “When the kids don’t have a vaccination, these can be fatal diseases. This is not a joke.”
READ MORE: 'It's still out there': How to protect yourself in case of a measles outbreak
For about 10 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. had a nationwide vaccination rate of 95% for vaccines like measles, mumps and rubella or polio and varicella (chicken pox).
According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, vaccination coverage among kindergartners remains at its lowest level in decades. The rate fell to 93% during the two school years after the onset of the pandemic.
State to state comparisons do have their challenges, in part because each has different requirements. Last year, Florida’s Department of Health reported an almost 91% state immunization rate for kindergarten students.
In South Florida, Palm Beach County had the same rate as the state — 90.6% vaccinated kindergarten students. Monroe County had 92.1%, Broward reported 91.9% and Miami-Dade County, 90.9%.
Florida law requires vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), for instance, but students can be exempted if their doctor provides a medical reason or if parents request a religious exemption.
“When the kids don’t have a vaccination, these can be fatal diseases. This is not a joke.”Claudia Belgrano, nurse practitioner at CHI
At this time of year doctors also worry about children who may have traveled overseas to visit loved ones over the summer, for example, and weren't vaccinated.
“Depending on the type of infectious disease, a child could be exposed and not know they have it until days later when they have the actual symptoms — the rash or the fever, or maybe a little nausea or vomiting,” said Dr. Eneida Roldan, a spokesperson with the Association of American Medical Colleges and a professor at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.
“Don't think that because a child has a mild fever and maybe a little cough [that] ‘Oh, it's just a simple flu.’ It may not be.”
Dr. Roldan also warns that some infectious diseases have overlapping symptoms. She recommends getting children vaccinated against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and the influenza virus by the middle of the fall.
“You don't want to find yourself in a situation where your child gets very, very sick, and basically the prevention was a simple immunization or vaccine. That's what you want to prevent," added Roldan.
Roldan and her husband will soon have a new grandchild. She said they're getting vaccinated against pertussis, or whooping cough, again because it can be life threatening for a baby, and the vaccine loses efficacy over time.
"If you want to hold your grandchild, you need to be protected so you can protect the grandchild," she said.
More information on vaccinations
Belgrano, the nurse practitioner who works at CHI, told WLRN she enjoys the challenge of getting children to feel calm before a vaccination.
“When a kid is very nervous, I tell them ‘It’s gonna be like a mosquito bite,'" Belgrano said. "If they’re a little older, at least 6 years old and they can understand better, I explain to them it’s to be protected so they don’t feel sick and can play with their friends.”
The CDC has a website covering all vaccine information, including vaccinations by age, ingredients, answers to common questions, travel vaccines and how to find free vaccines for uninsured children.
Florida Shots has vast resources too, including how to request vaccine records for a child.
To see the prevalence of religious exemptions in Florida, among children ages 4 to 18, click here.
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