By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
WKTV Managing Editor
Recent news of the virus that causes polio being found in New York City wastewater has many people thinking about immunizations.
The reason? Because as many national health experts have noted, the best protection against such diseases as polio is immunization.
“The importance of getting our child immunize is that we need to keep them healthy,” said Amy Shears, the immunization program supervisor for the Kent County Health Department. “Our vaccine campaign is ‘The Future is Ours.’ We want our children to stay healthy. We don’t want a resurgence of diseases that we haven’t seen in years whether that is polio, measles or mumps.
“That is where we get nervous. If these immunizations rates continue to drop, could those diseases we haven’t seen in years, rear their ugly heads? That’s were we get concerned.”
In fact, about a couple of weeks before the news of polio in New York City’s wastewater was released, the Kent County Health Department had announced it would be launching a public awareness campaign, “The Future is Ours,” to address falling vaccination rates in the county.
Immunization rates are low
“As of Aug. 1, children 24-36 vaccine coverage rate of 71 percent,” Shears said. “Granted that is not a bad number but we would really like to see that in the high 80s.”
Recently the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released information that Michigan’s numbers have gone below 70 percent for immunizations for children 19 to 36 months. The rate is currently around 68 percent.
The practice of immunizations dates back hundreds of years. For modern-day immunizations, the smallpox vaccine is considered the first successful one. It was developed in 1796. The polio vaccine came next follow by MMR which is for measles, mumps, and rubella.
There is the Tdap which protects against there diseases: tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). A more recent vaccine is the HPV vaccine. This is a sexually transmitted infection that is linked with cancer such as cervical, penile, and cancers of the back of the throat.
This is only a short list of the vaccines available. For a complete list and immunization schedules, visit accesskent.org and click on “immunizations.”
Data shows immunizations helps
To reflect how beneficial vaccines have been, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine note that since the release of the HPV vaccine in 2006, there has been a 29 percent decrease in cervical cancer. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that immunizations have saved two to three million lives each year.
As to why there has been a decrease, Shears said numbers were dropping before the COVID pandemic, which also had an impact. With medical facilities combating COVID-19 and putting as “many boots on the ground” where needed, immunizations were not a main focus.
For 19- to 35-month-olds, Kent county is about 3.4 percentage points below its pre-pandemic levels, Shears said, adding the biggest drop has been with those who have Medicaid.
Educating on the importance
The “Future is Ours” campaign is designed to share information about all immunizations. The project included rebuilding the VaccinateWest Mi.com website, which was originally built to provide COVID-19 vaccine information. The website now features information on age-appropriate vaccine timelines, links that allow parents to make vaccine appointments for their children, and how to find a local health department clinic.
Those interested in scheduling a clinic appointment, can call 616-632-7200 or visit accesakent.org.
