COUNTY HEALTH CENTER OFFERS VACCINES

The Cape County Public Health Center offers several types of free vaccinations for children, including those children need to enter school, at regularly scheduled clinics.

Clinics are held on the first and fourth Wednesdays and the second Monday of each month in Cape Girardeau and the third and fourth Mondays in Jackson. Call 335-7846 to schedule an appointment.

In addition, there will be three booster clinics this summer. Those will be held June 21, July 19 and Aug. 9.

Immunizations needed before a child can enter kindergarten in Missouri are five DPT (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), four polio, 2 MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and three hepatitis B.

Beginning with the 1999-2000 school year, the three hepatitis B injections are also required of students entering seventh grade.

There is also a tetanus booster required around age 15.

In addition, the public health center offers free chickenpox vaccines. The chickenpox vaccine is not required for Missouri school children, but there has been talk of requiring it in the future, said Jane Wernsman, assistant director of the Cape County Public Health Center.