State law has required students in grades 9-12 be immunized against hepatitis B since the 2005-06 school year.

To help students get the vaccines, and as a mini-practice run for mass vaccinations in the event of a pandemic flu, members of the Local Emergency Planning Committee are offering the shots to students during the next week.

On Aug. 10, from 2 to 4 p.m., the shots will be given at Wawasee High School, Syracuse; Warsaw Community High School, Aug. 14, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.; and Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, Akron, Aug. 15, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver said the dates relate to the schools' orientation dates. This is the first time the health department has gone out to the sites to give hepatitis B shots. The Planning Committee has been working together for a long time, Weaver said, to have a plan in place in the event of a pandemic flu, if a vaccine is available, to administer the flu shot. The local schools would be the locations where the shots would be given. The hepatitis B shots offer an opportunity for the Planning Committee to have a small version of a trial run.

The Planning Committee includes the county health department, Kosciusko Community Hospital, American Red Cross and Emergency Management. During an actual mass vaccination, the health department will provide the actual administering of the vaccines. Each site also will have a medical director in charge at all times. KCH will provide the medical volunteers and nurses. The Red Cross provides the non-medical volunteers, including many clerical assistants.

"Emergency Management would be security," said Weaver, and they would work with the local law enforcement and traffic control.

To receive a hepatitis B shot, a student must have their current shot record and a signed consent form by their parent or guardian. Consent forms will be available at the sites. "They have to bring their own shot record," said Weaver.

Three shots are required for hepatitis B. County Health Nurse Deb Frank said there usually is a month's time between doses one and two. Between doses two and three, there is usually a five-month waiting time. Conceivably, she said the shots can be given within a six-month timeframe. However, longer periods of time can pass without a person having to start the series of shots over, she said. "They can start where they left off."

While the hepatitis B vaccine only became required for high school students last school year, Frank said it's been required for kindergartners since about the 1999-2000 school year. The shots for newborns have been required before that and newborns now typically receive their first hepatitis B shot when they are born.

"A lot of kids have already started on them," Frank said. For the free hepatitis B shots, she said she plans to have hundreds available. She ordered 1,000 from the state and the state usually only provides about 500.

According to information provided by Frank, hepatitis B is a serious disease of the liver caused by a virus. It is spread through direct contact with blood or certain body fluids of a person with hepatitis B. It also can be spread within households if razors, toothbrushes or other personal hygiene products are shared. A baby can get hepatitis B from an infected mother during birth.

Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent hepatitis B. The vaccine is recommended for all babies, for adolescents who have not already received the vaccine and for people at risk for hepatitis B.

For more information about the hepatitis B vaccinations, call the Kosciusko County Health Department Clinical Services at 574-267-7028. [[In-content Ad]]