Recommendation against oral vaccine comes from CDC

A recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that children not be given oral polio vaccine probably won't take effect in Clark County until January, state health officials say.

Currently parents of children 2 and 4 months of age may choose to have their child receive a polio shot or a squirt of oral vaccine for the first two doses. The oral vaccine is weakened.

Only the last two doses, at ages 12-18 months and 4-6 years, are currently recommended to be given as injections.

The CDC's advisory committee recently asked that all four doses be given in the shot form. The Atlanta-based CDC usually follows its advisory committee's suggestions. State health departments and private physicians also tend to follow the guidelines.

Alice Costello, immunization supervisor for the Clark County Health District, said even though the new policy won't take effect until Jan. 1, her department plans to inform parents of the CDC recommendation.

"A parent just needs to start a child's immunization at least 2 months of age and follow the pediatrician's advice when to return," Costello said. "If people start to believe that polio is gone and don't get immunized, that's when we could see a resurgence."

Polio vaccinations are one of several basic childhood immunizations required for children to attend public schools, Costello said.

But no one checks whether parents who home school have their children immunized for polio, said Marge Comeau, principal clerk with the Clark County School District Personnel Services Department.

Currently, there are 2,415 children ages 7 to 17 being home schooled in Clark County, Comeau said.

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