Wednesday, April 18, 2012

California: Immunizations Required for Daycare and School Entry AB 2109

Currently in California, it is cheaper and easier to get an exemption from vaccine requirements for school entry than it is to actually comply with the requirements.
Now Assemblymember Richard Pan (D 5th District), a pediatrician, is planning to change that.  He has introduced AB 2109. (As of March 24, the bill is still in the Assembly Health Committee.) The change in the law is pretty mild: parents wishing an exemption have to talk to a licensed health care provider and have a form signed (just as they do if they are vaccine-compliant).
But I've heard read wild talk of what is required, so I thought I'd post a handy guide:
Immunizations Required for Daycare Attendance :
IZ_for_daycare

Immunizations Required for k-12 Attendance 
IZ_k_12

Read why the US vaccinates against Hepatitis B in childhood.  I live in a part of the United States where Asians and Pacific Islanders (API) make up a significant portion of the population.  The Stanford Asian Liver Center writes:
Why should Asian and Pacific Islanders care about Hepatitis B?
Despite the fact that only 0.2-0.5% of the U.S. population has chronic hepatitis B infection, this is still 1.25 million people, over half of whom are Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Americans. Depending on their country of origin, 5-15% of API immigrants have chronic hepatitis B. In some Pacific Rim countries, as many as 10-20% of the population are chronically infected.

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