WHEELING-OHIO COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH STATEMENT

West Virginia School Immunization Requirements

The Wheeling Ohio County Board of Health supports West Virginia’s current school immunization requirements which permits only valid medical exemptions to its immunization requirements. By keeping immunization rates high, these requirements have been very effective in preventing serious childhood diseases such as polio, measles, and whooping cough which can lead to devastating complications including deafness, blindness, pneumonia, paralysis, encephalitis, and death.

Vaccines have been one of the most effective public health measures ever adopted that are responsible for drastically reducing and in some cases eradicating dangerous infectious diseases. In addition to saving lives and improving the quality of life, immunizations provide significant economic benefits in preventing healthcare expenditures.

West Virginia’s school immunization requirements have enabled the state to obtain some of the highest kindergarten immunization rates in the nation. As result, West Virginia has had no outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases. In other states that permit non-medical and personal belief exemptions to childhood immunization requirements, outbreaks of preventable childhood diseases have occurred leading to the devastating complications as described above. Allowing non-medical exemptions to school immunization requirements will result in increasing the number of exemptions taken, reduce immunization rates, and provide an opportunity for vaccine preventable diseases outbreaks to occur in our schools and our communities.

Medical exemptions to school immunization requirements are permitted in West Virginia for children who have a contraindication to a vaccination due to an underlying medical condition such as an allergy to a vaccine component or an immune deficiency such as can occur when a child is being treated for cancer or suffers from immune system disorder.

When it comes to protecting children from disease, West Virginia is leading the nation with its strong immunization requirements. Due to its high immunization rate, the state has kept outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases out of our schools and thereby keeping our children healthy.  The only way to maintain this is to preserve the state policy regarding school immunization requirements as is without allowing personal belief exemptions.

Approved & Adopted by the Board of Health

January 17, 2025

John Holloway, M.D., Board Chair * Elisabeth Slater, Esq. * Tom Tuttle, R.Ph. * Mathew J Wood, D.O. * Erik Harris * Ty Thorngate

 

William S. Przybysz, M.D., Health Officer * Howard P. Gamble, MPH, LHA, Administrator