TUCSON, Ariz (KGUN) — Pima County will be offering measles vaccine at local schools this summer.
With serious measles outbreaks in other parts of the country, supervisors voted to send Pima County Health Department workers to schools that have lower than average vaccination rates.
County Health Director Doctor Theresa Cullen says the mobile vaccination clinics for the Measles, Mumps and Rubella shots will only come to schools that agree to host them.
She says the vaccine is regarded as safe, with very low risk of side effects.
Doctor Cullen says Arizona law requires MMR vaccinations for school children but says if parents do not want their child vaccinated they just have to say so.
“So a family can choose to document an exemption, and all it is is a family, a parent or a guardian, documenting a request for an exemption, and that is then accepted.”
Doctor Cullen says if a school’s vaccination rate is below 95 percent, that school’s student body is regarded as under vaccinated. The goal is to have enough children vaccinated to make it difficult for measles to spread to unvaccinated children.
