Doctors encourage vaccinations as students head back to school

BOSTON — Public health officials are urging parents to get their children vaccinated for the upcoming school year, especially after a few diseases recently appeared in Massachusetts that were thought to be things of the past.

"They wiped it and then they did the shot”, 11-year-old Hayleigh Burke said as she points at her right shoulder. She just got her tetanus shot before the start of the school year.

"I just don't want my kids getting sick", her mother Katie Burke said.

Dr. Sarah Canale is a pediatrician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Somerville. According to her, there's been an uptick in parents bringing their kids in for immunization shots these past few weeks. Here in Massachusetts, all vaccinations are free for children through a mix of state and federal grant money.  

"It makes it tricky with the start of the school year being right now." Canale said.

The state requires new students to be updated with their vaccinations, unless there's a religious or medical exemption. Canale said she's dealt with a few parents who are reluctant to give their kids shots.

"Each parent has different concerns about it and I ask parents to really bring them up" Canale said.

Canale is not alone.  The American Academy of Pediatrics found that 87 percent of pediatricians surveyed back in 2013 had encountered parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. That's up from 75 percent of pediatricians surveyed in 2006.

READ MORE: Vaccines by county and town in Massachusetts for 2015/2016 school year.

• Kindergarten vaccines by county
• Kindergarten vaccines by school
• 7th grade vaccines by county
• 7th grade vaccines by school

"I think one of the problems is that people don't see the diseases anymore and they don't realize the importance of preventing them", said Dr. Larry Madoff, director of Epidemiology and Immunization at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Madoff said some of these diseases have a tendency to reappear. In May, a European tourist visiting Boston was diagnosed with measles which shut down the Nespresso on Newbury Street after they found that not all employees were immunized.

"Before we had measles vaccine in this country, we would have hundreds of deaths due to measles." Madoff said.

There was also a mumps outbreak earlier this year at Harvard University. Cambridge Public Health Department confirmed there were 64 cases in their final report.  Some of those infected were vaccinated.  The Center for Disease Control says the mumps vaccine is only 88 percent effective.  But Madoff said that doesn't mean you shouldn't protect yourself.

"Even here in Massachusetts where we have very good vaccination rates overall, there are small pockets where children are not adequately immunized." Madoff said.

Madoff told FOX25 about 97 percent of incoming kindergartners are vaccinated. According to immunization records from DPH, counties on the Cape and Cape islands, along with some western counties in Massachusetts have the highest exemption rates.

For example, in 2015/2016 Dukes County has a total exemption rate of 8.2 percent for incoming kindergartners.  That may seem high, but to put that into perspective, Dukes County, which includes Martha’s Vineyard and a few other Cape islands, only has seven schools and 183 kindergartners.  These counties have relatively smaller student populations, which means a handful of unimmunized students make the percentage rates look large.

"Even a few kids being unimmunized put not only themselves at risk, but their classmates at risk" Madoff said.

Madoff said that getting the most possible people vaccinated will protect the very few that can't or won't.

"Vaccination is very safe and vaccination is always safer than the diseases that they prevent.” Madoff said.

Cox Media Group