By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
The Rowan County Health Department will hold a Tdap immunization clinic for children entering the sixth grade Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Parents are asked to make appointments to have their children immunized by calling 704-216-8786. There is no cost for the vaccine at the clinic, although private health-care providers may charge a small administration fee to give the vaccine.
New vaccine laws passed last year require all children entering the sixth grade in public schools to have a booster dose of the Tdap vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). Children attending private, religious or home schools are required to receive the vaccine by age 12.
Nora Cartner, nursing supervisor for the Health Department, said the Tdap booster shot is also recommended for adults who have not had the whooping cough component of the vaccine. The reason, she said, is that the average of three Rowan County infants diagnosed with whooping cough each year are believed to have contracted it from adults who either never sought treatment or were misdiagnosed.
“Usually, doctors will say it’s bronchitis or something like that,” she said. “Unless you do the actual culture for the test, and it’s done within the appropriate timeframe when the symptoms start, you’ll never get it diagnosed.”
Cartner said anyone who has received the Tdap booster shot within the last two years only needs to get a tetanus booster shot every 10 years after that.