The Preble County General Health District will be receiving a grant focusing on children under 2 years old, and ensuring parents are educated about immunizations for them.
Last week, State Rep. Jim Zehringer announced the grants for Preble and Darke counties. The funding, from the Ohio Department of Health, is a part of the department's Immunization Action Plan.
The Preble County General Health District will receive $20,900, according to state officials.
"Ensuring that young children receive the proper vaccinations will help protect them from potentially dangerous diseases and allow them to grow into healthy adults," Zehringer said. "These grants will help our local health departments reach more of the children in our area who need to be vaccinated."
PCGHD Administrator Melissa Howell confirmed on Friday the agency would be the recipient of the grant which focuses on children under 2 years of age.
"We use the money to conduct education and outreach activities," she explained.
"These activities include informing parents about the importance of receiving timely immunizations for their children."
According to Howell, the PCGHD offers support to physicians to keep children less than 2 years old up-to-date through MOBI (maximizing office-based immunizations) and serves as a resource to practitioners for immunization updates and schedule changes.
"The money also helps identify areas in the county where immunization rates are lower in children and develop activities to increase those rates in those areas," Howell said. "We have done door-to-door flyers with immunization schedules."
PCGHD's immunization clinic is open each Monday from 9-11 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. No appointment is necessary.
Recommended immunizations for children under 2 include vaccinations for Hepatitis B (birth, 1-2 months, 6-18 months); rotavirus (2 months, 4 months, 6 months); diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15-18 months); haemophilus influenza type B (2 months, 4 months, 12-15 months); pneumococcal (2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 12-15 months; inactivated poliovirus (2 months, 4 months, 6-18 months); influenza (6-24 months); measles, mumps, rubella (12-15 months); varicella (12-15 months); hepatitis A (12-24 months).
The Darke County General Health District will receive $22,590 in funding. The funding provided by the Immunization Action Plan helps local health departments achieve and maintain vaccination levels of 90 percent among children less than 2 years old, according to state officials.
"Ads published on this site are not for republication in print or web media without the expressed written consent of both the advertiser and The Brown Publishing Company."
