Southern Nevada Health District goes for record immunizations

When a national report on health care for children was released in February, Nevada ranked a dismal 46th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in a critical category -- the percentage of young children who received all recommended doses of six vaccines that can prevent dangerous diseases that include polio and diphtheria.

With that in mind on Tuesday, Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District, urged parents to bring their children to a free Shots 4 Tots Vaccinate Your Child Festival on Saturday.

The festival clinic, which will include a fashion show, entertainers, games and vendors geared toward families, will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the former Auto Nation car lot, 4701 W. Sahara Ave., near Decatur Boulevard.

Childhood and school immunizations will be available at no cost for children up to age 18, including the mandatory pertussis or whooping cough vaccine.

Sands is hopeful that the clinic can break the world record for the number of immunizations given during one event. The current record, according to Guinness World Records, is 6,215 flu shots administered over eight hours in San Diego last year.

"We have to get people to realize how important vaccinations are," Sands said prior to a press conference at the health district on Shadow Lane. "They think because they're no longer seeing kids with these diseases that there is no problem. But there still can be."

Vaccines, Sands noted, are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that were once common in this country, including polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, German measles, mumps, tetanus, and influenza type b.

Just last year, Sands said, California experienced a dangerous outbreak of whooping cough.

"There's simply no need for us to have people suffering from something when we have preventive measures for it," he said.

While Sands said events like the one this weekend are important, he said it will take a concerted long-term community effort to improve health care for children in Southern Nevada.

"Events like this weekend are nice but you can't sustain an important public health program that way," he said.

The national report issued by the Commonwealth Fund, which ranked Nevada low in vaccinations, ranked Nevada last on its "State Scored card of Child Health System Performance."

According to the report, only 45 percent of Nevada children have a "medical home," its term for the medical practitioners whom they see regularly, By comparison, in the best state, New Hampshire, the number is nearly 70 percent.

"One problem we have is we just don't have enough doctors," Sands said. "When kids regularly see doctors, they get vaccinated."

In 2007, the last year with firm statistics, the state had 218 physicians per 100,000 residents, ranking 48th among states in the number of physicians per capita.

Nevada State Health Officer Dr. Tracy Green told the Review-Journal in February that she hopes to attract more foreign doctors to the state through the J-1 visa waiver program to help compensate for the shortage. The program allows foreign medical graduates who have completed graduate medical training in the United States to remain and work in underserved, often rural, areas.

Green said she also is planning school-based medical centers throughout the state to provide access to health care to children.

Katie Nannini, director of the Nevada Immunization Coalition, said both private and public health officials are stepping up efforts to remind parents to get their children immunized. In addition to post card and emails reminders, she noted that Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, has made a texting reminder program available to new parents. To find out more about the program, visit the web site www.vaxtext.com.

"It seems like a natural progression to get reminded over the phone," Nannini said from her Reno office. "I don't care how we do it. We just have to kids vaccinated so they don't end up getting sick."

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.