Health Department to Host Back to School Vaccination Clinic
Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula City-County Health Department will be hosting a back-to-school vaccination clinic next week at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.
Sara Heineman, Director of the Health Services Division at the Missoula City-County Health Department provided details to KGVO News on Friday.
The Vaccination Clinic will be the First of its Kind for Several Years
“We are doing a back-to-school clinic this year,” began Heineman. “This is the first one that we have done in a very long time. In an effort to catch kids up during the pandemic, we saw a huge backslide in kids being vaccinated for routine shots due to access to care and routine services kind of shutting down during that period. Because of that, we are focusing our efforts to be accessible to the whole Missoula County community for a back-to-school event.”
Heineman provided specific details about the event that will be held on Wednesday.
“It will be Wednesday, August 23rd at the fairgrounds Home Arts building from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. where we're going to have vaccinations for school-aged kids. We’re looking for those specific time frames with kids going into kindergarten and into seventh grade because they have those state requirements, so we'll be bringing all of those vaccines.”
Read the Story for Details of the Types of Vaccinations Offered
Heineman explained which vaccinations will be available at the Missoula County Fairgrounds event.
“For the kindergarten age, we have the DTaP to vaccinate against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis,” she said. “We have polio, MMR which is measles, mumps, and rubella, and then varicella, which is for chickenpox. For that teenage group, we're bringing Tdap which is the adolescent version of the tetanus-diphtheria-Pertussis vaccine. That's the only one that's required for that age, but there are also the HPV and meningitis vaccines that are recommended for that age group. So we're bringing those as well.”
The Vaccinations are NOT free but There will be a Sliding Fee Scale
Heineman explained that the vaccinations are not free, but they will work on a sliding fee scale.
“We ask that parents bring a photo ID and their insurance if they have it,” she said. “If kids are uninsured, we do have a sliding fee scale available. So we're going to work with all families to make sure that they can receive the vaccines that their kids need to attend school this fall. So, it'll be either covered by insurance as a routine preventable service or it'll be low to no cost depending on the sliding fee scale. We can work with everyone.”
The event will be Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.