New students must get hepatitis immunization

Stephen Curran

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.

Las Vegas mother Cathy Barris has one more thing to do before her 5-year-old daughter can enter kindergarten.

In addition to filling out paperwork, buying clothes and stocking up on school supplies, Barris now has to get daughter Savannah vaccinated for hepatitis A and B.

Barris is not alone. In January the state Health Board adopted new regulations requiring all students entering Nevada schools to be immunized for the diseases. The Clark County School District projects the number of students entering the district this fall will exceed 14,000, school district spokesperson Mary Stanley-Larsen said.

The regulations went into effect Monday and extend to all students, regardless of grade level, entering Nevada's public and private schools. Students already attending schools in the state do not have to have the shots.

The Clark County Health District currently sees between 300 and 400 children per day, said Peggy Hensley, immunization project coordinator for the Health District. That number will probably double or triple in August, a key "moving month," when the Las Vegas Valley sees an influx of families moving in from other states, she said.

Health Board officials decided to adopt the new regulations following recent reports that children in Nevada are contracting Hepatitis A at a rate more than twice the national average, according to a report from the state Health Division.

The reason behind the increased rate of the disease in the state is unknown, said Dr. Trudy Larson, professor of pediatrics at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

However, these statistics make it especially important for Nevada parents to have their children immunized, she said.

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious virus that damages the liver. Children under 15 make up almost 30 percent of all cases of the disease, but do not always display outward symptoms of the disease. Instead, they serve as carriers, transmitting it to adults, who can develop serious illness as a result.

The state Health Division estimates that 100 people die every year from hepatitis A.

Nevada is one of the first states in the country to require the Hepatitis A vaccine of its schoolchildren, Larson said.

"We're instituting something cutting edge," Larson said. "We're on the forefront. This may be a first for us."

Symptoms of the disease include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, jaundice and dark urine. It can be spread through close person-to-person contact or by contaminated food or water.

Hepatitis B can cause serious liver damage and liver cancer. It is spread through infected blood and bodily fluids, intravenous drug use, body piercing and tattooing. It claims more than 5,000 lives per year, according to the Nevada State Health Division.

The hepatitis B vaccine has been available for about seven years, Larson said, but Nevada is one of the last states in the country to require it.

Despite the added pressure on their time, area parents recognize that the immunizations are in their children's best interest, Hensley said, noting she waited about 20 minutes to have her daughter immunized.

"It's important to have a healthy environment," she said. "Parents are generally accepting of that."

For Barris the time spent waiting was worth it to make sure Savannah is ready to begin school. However, the added shots came as a surprise when she went to register her daughter at Wilhelm Elementary and was not allowed.

Barris said she wanted to take all necessary precautions, but that instructions from the school district were poorly worded.

"I felt like I hadn't kept up," Barris said. "I just wanted to make sure she's ready."

The immunizations require a total of five shots in the arm, two for the hepatitis A vaccine and three for the hepatitis B shot. The shots cause may cause mild discomfort or swelling that can be relieved by over-the-counter pain remedies, Larson said.

But try telling that to Savannah, who sat through the shots without crying but declined to talk about the experience.