DENVER - As our kids get ready to start the school year, besides picking out clothes and backpacks, we often think of physicals, vaccinations, and other health requirements and recommendations. In preparation of going back to school, we are getting you educated on your children's health.
It's not just young children you have to prepare for school. Older children going off to college, some for their first year, need to be prepared for life away from home. In addition to the social aspects of living on their own for the first time, usually with an unknown roommate, health concerns also need to be taken into account.
Recent outbreaks of meningitis, which unfortunately proved fatal for some college students, highlight the need to make sure a student's vaccines are up to date before heading off to school. Most colleges mandate some vaccines and highly recommend others. Living in a communal-type dormitory environment means your child will be exposed to many types of illnesses throughout the year. This is why most colleges mandate some vaccines like MMR and either mandate or highly recommend others like meningitis, tetanus and diphtheria, hepatitis, polio and varicella.
It's best to check your child's vaccine records now and update any ones that have expired before they leave the nest. All vaccines take time to fully activate in the body so waiting until an outbreak happens could be too late.
When it comes to younger kids, in addition to making sure their shots are up to date you might also be getting them a sports physical. During this physical, the doctor should be asking questions about the child's own sports history as well as their family's health history. Red flags include the child having breathing issues during sports, having a history of heart palpitations or chest pain or having passed out sometime during their lives. Family history concerns include any sudden, unexpected deaths in the child's family history.
If there is a positive answer to any of these questions, it is best to talk with the child's doctor about further testing to ensure he/she doesn't suffer from a condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This condition can lead to problems with the electrical pattern of the heart usually only noticed in school aged children during intense sports activities. This same condition is blamed each year for fatal heart arrhythmias occurring in school aged children during sporting activities.
If the child's history, or their family history suggests possible heart problems, getting other tests like electrocardiograms (heart ultrasounds) can make sure your child doesn't have this issue.
Highlighting the need for updating childhood vaccines before sending them off to school is the current whooping cough outbreak in California, which so far this year has affected more than 1,900 people. Although no deaths have been reported this year, it comes on the heels of last year's outbreak which did end up killing 10 infants.
This is in addition to other outbreaks either currently or recently reported in Virginia, Michigan, Idaho, South Carolina and New York.
Unvaccinated children do get some protection against catching this or other preventable disease from what's known as "herd immunity." This means that since other children and adults get vaccinated, the unvaccinated ones do get some protection. However, experts believe the current outbreaks are the result of unvaccinated children and adults contracting whooping cough and spreading to even those that have been vaccinated.
A recent study even highlighted the fact that unvaccinated children are 23 times more likely to catch whooping cough than vaccinated children. So keeping updated on recommended vaccines is the best way to not only protect your own children, but also those they come in contact with.
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