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Show Home & School i by Dr. Daryl J. McCarly Executive Secretary Utah Education Association Here's some good news and some bad news: The good news is that the State Health Division estimates that more than 90 percent of the elementary students in Murray School District are adequately immunized against seven "childhood" diseases that can kill or seriously cripple. Other school districts are doing nearly as well. The bad news is that thousands of Utah kids have not yet received the protection that modern medicine is waiting to give them. Through a lot of hard work, brilliant observation, blind luck and the help of a few major miracles, scientists have developed vaccines that prevent dip-theria, dip-theria, lockjaw, polio, measles, rubella, whooping cough and mumps. They're easily available at your physician's office or at public health clinics. They're very cheap, too, when you consider the alternatives. We've been pretty lucky, you know. We haven't experienced ex-perienced a large outbreak of diseases for years. And a lot of us are vulnerable to a lot of diseases. Health officials have been worried about the alarmingly alar-mingly low levels of immunity im-munity among the nation's young people. That's why a campaign was launched to immunize our children against these diseases. The objective is to have 90 percent of American children immunized against those seven diseases in a two-year period, then work to keep it at that level. But don't rely on the government to immunize your children. As a parent, you may know more about your child's immunization status better than anyone else. As the child's parent, you're in the best position to see that your child gets the needed protection. Which brings us to this point: Summer's coming soon. Maybe you've been reluctant to take your child out of school for a doctor's appointment. If so, you might want to schedule an appointment during the summer to get this disease protection for your children. And think about this: By having your child immunized, im-munized, you'll be protecting protec-ting other kids, too. |