Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Immunization: Nevada County's Rate Is 92 Percent

At a news conference January 29, Governor and Mrs. Huckabee joined Arkansas Department of Health Director, Dr. Sandra Nichols, and released figures showing good news about immunization levels in Arkansas' children.

The statistics released by the health department indicate that every county in Arkansas all 75 of them reached the current immunization goal of 90% of two-year-olds during 1997, based on clinic assessments conducted in local health units only.

"We can't rest on our laurels because the ultimate goal set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the Year 2000 has additional requirements," Dr. Nichols stressed.

Nevada County was recognized at the press conference for the meeting the goal for the first time. The county's interim immunization rate is now 92%.

According to Dr. Nichols, im-munization rates are always a challenge to qualify, and one of the reasons the health department will continue to push toward the Year 2000 goal is that all private physicians who give shots will soon be reporting to the statewide immunization registry.

"In the past," Dr. Nichols said, "our statistics have relied on individual health unit assessments that only account for some of the private physicians' immunization activity.

"Since it is estimated that the health department provides somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of the childhood vaccinations in the state," she added, "we feel we're off to a good start. This year we'll be able to increase our accuracy by accounting for immunizations given in private physicians' offices."

Governor and Mrs. Huckabee and Dr. Nichols made the announcement at the Capitol Rotunda and later accompanied representatives from the county health units to the Governor's Mansion for a luncheon to honor their achievements.

Mrs. Huckabee has become one of the state's most vocal and ardent advocates of immunizations and has signed on as the honorary chairman of Operation KidCare, the statewide coalition dedicated to outreach and education to stimulate parents to get their children's shots.

"The county health admin-istrators should be incredibly proud," Mrs. Huckabee said. "This took several years of aggressive media outreach and grassroots level education, and lots of hard work and dedication on the health units' part."

Dr. Nichols also pointed out that many of the state's health units had been personally visited by the first lady during her immunization effort.

For more information about Operation KidCare or where to get your child's immunizations, contact the Arkansas Department of Health at 1-800-235-0002.

Jimmy Cox has been named employee of the month at Firestone. Cox has been with Firestone for 25 years and works in the lab as an incoming raw material inspector. Cox lives in Prescott and is married. He has five children. He likes to remain active by following local sports. His hobbies are hunting and fishing.