For the eighth consecutive year, the Anne Arundel County Department of Health and Anne Arundel County Public Schools are teaming up to give elementary students the opportunity to receive free FluMist vaccines.
Between Monday, October 21, 2013, and Thursday, October 31, 2013, healthy children in kindergarten through fifth grade may receive the vaccine at their elementary school provided they have written parental consent. Parental permission forms along with a vaccine information sheet were sent home with students today, and must be returned to elementary schools no later than Friday, October 4, 2013.
FluMist, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
is a safe nasal spray vaccine that contains the live, but attenuated (weakened), flu virus. Nationally, elementary schools with high flu immunization rates often notice reduced illness not only among the vaccinated students, but among their families as well.
Parents who did not receive the forms can download them from the Anne Arundel County Public Schools website, www.aacps.org. More information is also available on the County Department of Health’s website, www.aahealth.org.