Governor Extends Whooping Cough Vaccination Deadline

Officials with the Lake Elsinore Unified School District have an additional 30 days to verify that students are vaccinated against whooping cough due to legislation passed into law yesterday.

Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 614, which grants California school districts an extra 30 days after classes start to verify students have been vaccinated.

The emergency measure was designed to extend a state law deadline that required students entering or advancing to grades seven through 12 in the 2011–12 school year to be immunized with a pertussis booster called the Tdap vaccine. That requirement went into effect July 1 and covers all students—current, new, and transfers—in public and private schools.

According to a July 15 report from University of Southern California Annenberg School’s Center for Health Reporting, the state documented 9,120 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, last year – the most in more than half a century. Ten of those cases were infant deaths, the report found. The California Department of Education reports the number has risen to more than 11,000 cases since last year.

In addition to doctor offices, several pharmacies and the county-operated Lake Elsinore Family Care Center located at 2499 East Lakeshore Drive are offering the Tdap vaccine. Funding cutbacks have eliminated Lake Elsinore Unified School District’s ability to administer vaccines, said Mark Dennis, coordinator of community and media relations for the district.

Earlier this month, Dennis reported compliance with the vaccination deadline was lacking.

“To date, about 50 percent of students have submitted the required proof of immunization paperwork,” said Dennis earlier this month. “We are pushing to ensure all students have the required documentation by the start of school," which begins Aug. 11.

Each day a student misses school, the LEUSD loses funding. Dennis said he is hopeful the lackluster compliance to turn in immunization paperwork improves.

“Despite the extension, we want to see 100 percent compliance by the start of school,” he said.

For more information on pertussis and the Tdap vaccine, visit the California Department of Education’s Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/pertussis.asp.