Fees waived for immunization drive
By Cassandra D. Youmans District Health Director

Our state public health division has developed a Pandemic (unexpected occurrence of disease) Influenza Response Standard Operating Guideline for the state, which describes the roles, responsibilities and the concept for operations at the federal, state and district level. Georgia has partnered with a variety of organizations and is working very closely with the World Health Organization, Georgia Department of Agriculture, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the poultry and egg industry, to name a few.

Locally, the emergency preparedness activities of the East Central Health District have designed pre-event plans that will support the CSRA and District VI in the event of this or some other biological disaster. Our primary roles in any major disaster are in administering vaccinations or distributing medications to large populations, and if needed, assuring access to special needs sheltering for citizens with medical conditions that may require special or expert medical interventions during sheltering.

In preparation for any disaster, pre-event planning and preparation begins with education. We have educated our staff, private and public community partners and are now reaching out to our citizens to educate them about Human Influenza A, Avian Influenza A and Bordetella Pertussis.

Our pre-event preparation also includes the upcoming immunization drive called the School and Community Immunization Round-up which will be held July 24-29. Vaccine administration fees have been waived for the purpose of the drive, to encourage our citizens to come to their local health departments or any of our partner sites and up-date their immunizations. In addition, we will be providing children with access to back to school hearing, dental and vision screenings and providing adults with blood pressure screenings.

The School and Community Immunization Round-up is a public service program but will also serve as an emergency preparedness drill for the East Central Health District. This drill will provide us the opportunity to test our capacity to administer coordinated district-wide mass immunizations, in the event a major biological disaster did occur.