Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Meningitis shots required for Nevada high school seniors

Vaccine

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Students enrolled in the 12th grade throughout Nevada will be required to receive the meningococcal vaccine (MenACWY) prior to the start of the 2022-23 school year. The requirement is for students in all public, private, and charter schools in Nevada, the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services said. For most students, this means a booster dose; a majority of students received a first dose of MenACWY at ages 11-12.

Getting the jabs

Vaccines are available through primary care providers, pharmacies, health districts and federally qualified health centers.

The Southern Nevada Health District is offering childhood vaccines at regular clinics in Las Vegas, Henderson and Mesquite. Appointments are strongly encouraged.

Vaccine costs vary, and most insurance is accepted. There’s an administration fee of $20 per person for one vaccine, and $8 for additional vaccines.

Parents or guardians vaccinating a child at a Health District clinic should bring immunization records. If their children were immunized in Nevada, parents can visit Nevada WebIZ, the statewide immunization registry, to download their child’s records.

Visit www.snhd.info/bts or call 702-759-0850 to make an appointment.

If they haven’t already, parents of incoming 12th-graders need to get their children a meningitis vaccination or booster before school resumes next week.

They should consider getting their kids the COVID-19 shot, too, doctors say.

The Nevada State Board of Health approved the mandate effective July 1, 2022, meaning that students enrolled in the 12th grade throughout Nevada will be required to receive the meningococcal vaccine (MenACWY) prior to the start of the 2022-23 school year, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. The MenACWY vaccine is an immunization against meningitis.

The requirement is for students in all public, private, and charter schools in Nevada, the department said. For most students this means a booster dose as they likely received a first dose of MenACWY at ages 11-12.

The meningitis vaccine has long been a requirement for college students, as the disease can spread in close group living spaces like dorms.

Meningitis is the inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, and can lead to blood poisoning, organ failure, limb loss, hearing loss, brain damage and death. It kills 10 to 15% of people it infects, and leaves about 20% of survivors with disabilities, according to Immunize Nevada.

Dr. David DiJohn, a Las Vegas pediatrician, called the disease “devastating.”

“It’s not common, but you wouldn’t want to get it,” DiJohn said. “The vaccine is really the best way to protect your child against that disease.”

Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell, a Reno family practitioner who serves as the urgent care medical director for Saint Mary’s and Carbon Health and as a member of the Governor’s Medical Advisory Board, said that children already lost so much in-person learning during the pandemic shutdown that they shouldn’t get sick with any vaccine-preventable disease now.

“As a parent myself, I always like to remind my (patients’) parents we would have had so many different diseases that would have been prevalent if we didn’t have vaccines in play,” she said. “They have really helped either eradicate or decrease the presentation of diseases that we know can sometimes be life-threatening, debilitating and really have long-lasting effects.”

The meningitis shot joins shots against the chicken pox; polio; measles, mumps and rubella; hepatitis A and B; diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis as a required vaccine.

Public health officials also recommend — but don’t require — youngsters be immunized against the flu, human papillomavirus (HPV) and COVID-19.

The COVID vaccine was federally authorized for adolescents 12 and older in May 2021, for kids between 5 and 11 in October, and for the youngest children, ages 6 months to 5 years, in June. But it has not been widely popular for Nevada’s youths — as of mid-July, fewer than 1% of children up to age 5 had received the shot, and only 3% of kids between 5-11 were fully vaccinated, according to state and federal data.

Sherilyn Duckworth, Immunize Nevada’s executive director, said her organization encouraged pediatricians to talk with their patients about the benefits of vaccines, as they can leverage their direct relationships to have the most influence.

And to that, while it’s not required by the state or schools, the experts suggest the COVID vaccination as school resumes.

Curry-Winchell said children who had COVID can have lingering coughs and shortness of breath that can be distracting in the classroom and affect their ability to play sports.

DiJohn sees the disease slam children like it does adults.

“I see the young babies, the young kids that get COVID,” DiJohn said. “The ones that are vaccinated tend to not be the ones that get hospitalized.”

He said he’s seen a lasting increase in overall vaccine reluctance since the start of the pandemic, and doctors needed to redouble their efforts to convince people that vaccines were important and safe.

“I do see more hesitancy lately than I think I ever have before,” he said.

Duckworth has a more optimistic view. She said that skepticism about the COVID vaccine was abating, and furthermore, that young people were speaking up for their health.

“People are seeing that it is not what they once believed it was and they are beginning to trust the science and vaccinate themselves and their families,” she said. “In addition to that, a lot of young people are standing up for themselves. They are advocating for their health. They are doing their research, and if their research says this is good for my health, they are (saying) that to their parents.”

One shot that parents and children likely wouldn’t get even if they wanted it: the monkeypox vaccine. Shots against the emerging disease are not approved for people under age 18, and though available locally, are in limited amounts and being prioritized for people who have had close physical contact with someone with a confirmed or suspected case.