immunization Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Health Department: Parents Need To Ensure Child Vaccinations Are Current

As school begins across West Virginia, health experts say getting children their routine vaccinations is a “back-to-school” must.

Kanawha-Charleston Health Officer Dr. Steven Eshenaur said countless West Virginia children have missed their annual vaccinations during the global pandemic. It is what the World Health Organization calls a “global child health crisis.”

“Many routine immunizations including tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella. Millions of children worldwide did not receive those,” Eshenaur said. “Overall immunization rates are down in the U.S. over the past couple of years compared to what our traditional rates were in 2019 and earlier.”

Eshenaur said that history proves vaccines prevent childhood deaths. With a recent case of polio discovered in New York City, he said a possible outbreak could be underway.

“As New York has been testing their sewage water, they are finding polio virus in the sewage,” Eshenaur said. “That is scary given that only approximately one out of 1,000 individuals that contract polio actually come down with a full neurological disease and result in paralysis.”

Eshenaur said needed protection against meningitis looms large, since the disease is still prevalent despite having a relatively aggressive immunization program.

“We still require boosters, especially for many public colleges when large groups of young individuals get together,” Eshenaur said. “That disease is very infectious and can easily spread throughout the population.”

Eshenaur said there are vaccination schedules for children from birth to college.

“Anyone that is entering public school for the first time has quite the group of vaccines that they will need,” Eshenaur said. “Seventh and twelfth graders also have vaccines dependent upon what their history has been with their vaccinations.”

He asks parents to check with their family physician or local health department.

“Anytime anyone has a question of the needs of what vaccines their child might require, they can either follow up with their pediatrician or go to their local health department,” Eshanuer said. “That’s where their full immunization records can be reviewed and any deficiencies be immediately addressed.”

Vaccinations Available for West Virginia Students

West Virginia health and education officials say immunizations for children are available at more than 380 Vaccines for Children provider locations, including local health departments.

They say uninsured or underinsured children can get free vaccinations at those sites.

Routine childhood vaccines protect against 14 diseases including diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, measles, rotavirus, haemophilus influenzae type B, tetanus, mumps, whooping cough, pneumococcal disease, polio, rubella, meningococcal disease and chickenpox.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, state health officer, says vaccines are among the most successful public health tools available for preventing disease and death.

In West Virginia, various immunizations are required for children entering school in the state for the first time and also those entering pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, seventh and twelfth grades.

Information is available online at www.immunization.wv.gov.

State Officials Emphasizing Immunization for Tots

West Virginia officials are trying to put more emphasis on keeping vaccinations up to date for children 2 years old and younger.

The state has among the nation’s highest immunization rates for school-age children, at 97 percent, but state health officials say the rate for children 19 to 35 months old is the lowest in the country.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail said Health and Human Resources Secretary Karen Bowling and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta participated in a vaccination awareness event in Charleston on Monday. The event kicked off National Infant Immunization Week.

Gupta said the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that children are supposed to get around age 1 is one of the immunizations young West Virginia residents are missing in large numbers.

W.Va. Has High Rate of Cervical Cancer Despite Preventive Vaccines

Human Papillomavirus – more commonly known as HPV — is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. It is so common that almost all sexually active individuals will get it at some point, which puts them at risk for developing various cancers. The good news: HPV is preventable. The bad news: vaccination rates are low nationwide, with particularly troubling statistics coming out of West Virginia.

Shelly Dusic found out she had cervical cancer two weeks after she got married. She was 22.

“And I was probably the most grateful person to find out I had cancer you’ve ever seen,” says Dusic. “Because for the six years prior to that, I’d been told by four doctors that I’d never live to see 30, that they didn’t know what was wrong with me. [I had] been through seven diagnostic surgeries and we didn’t know what was wrong.”

Her first symptoms of having HPV – irregular, heavy periods, debilitating pain in her right side – started when she was about 16. She had a hysterectomy to address the cancer when she was 23.

Dusic was quick to point out that her case was not “normal.” The average age of cervical cancer diagnosis in the United States is 48.

“But being exposed to the virus that causes cervical cancer in your teens or early 20s is very common,” she says.

HPV viruses (there are more than 100 related strains) cause almost all cases of cervical and anal cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute. HPV can also cause other cancers, including cancer of the mid-throat. Once someone is infected with HPV, they will carry it until the virus leaves their system – or doesn’t; there is no cure.

“We need to get the word out that we have a vaccine that can prevent cancer,” says Kathryn Moffett, head of the pediatric infectious diseases at West Virginia University School of Medicine.

“Giving the HPV vaccine is not about giving your child permission to be sexually active,” says Moffett. “Those are very important conversations to talk to your kid about making good choices, and waiting on things and being monogamous – those are all really important things. It’s about prevention – give it before anyone is even remotely considering doing anything. Give it at 11 and 12 when they get a really brisk response and they get a response to all the serotypes in the vaccine – then you are protected.”

Moffett says millions of doses of the vaccine have been given in the ten years since the vaccine was approved, but that West Virginia continues to experience low vaccination rates. There are no known serious side effects to the vaccine.

“Unfortunately, we are number one in HPV-related cervical cancer deaths and number four in HPV-related infections in the United States,” says Moffett. “That’s bad.”

Part of West Virginia’s high cervical cancer rates may be due to other risk factors. Smoking, for instance, increases the risk of cervical cancer, as does poverty and being overweight, according to the American Cancer Society.

Shelly Dusic was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2002 – four years before the first vaccine came out.

“The day the FDA approved the vaccine for HPV, I bawled like a baby,” says Dusic. “Because for the first time there was hope that no other woman had to go through what I went through, and no one should.”

According to the CDC, about 79 million Americans are infected with HPV. About 14 million people become newly infected each year, with no cure yet in sight.

Dusic is now 36 and hasn’t been sick since her surgery. She loves being well. But she says she still has trouble walking through the aisles of Walmart and passing the baby section.

“And I think about the things that that vaccine could have saved,” she says. “It would be worth it.”

Dusic is now a Health Information Specialist for the WV Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program, which has been partnering with the WV Immunization Network to try and increase HPV vaccination rates in Appalachia.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

State Immunization Network Hosts First West Virginia HPV Summit

Human papillomavirus, more commonly called HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, affecting about 1 in 4 Americans. The HPV virus can cause cervical cancer, of which West Virginia has the highest incidence rate in the country.

“We are holding the HPV summit today because we have a vaccine that can prevent cancer – this is a wonderful development that we have that we can use to really keep our communities healthy,” said Elaine Darling, Program Manager for the West Virginia Immunization Network.

“And yet only about 40 percent of females in West Virginia ages 13-17 have received the vaccine, and when you look at males it’s even lower at 24 percent. And yet we can prevent cancer among them, but we are just not reaching as many people as we should.”

The summit included representatives from more than 45 organizations, such as state agencies, insurers, schools and faith communities.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.