The Hancock County Board of Health supports West Virginia’s current school immunization requirements. By only permitting valid medical exemptions, West Virginia has been able to keep immunization rates high. This in turn helps to prevent serious childhood diseases such as polio, measles, and whooping cough. These diseases can lead to devastating complications including deafness, blindness, pneumonia, paralysis, encephalitis, and even death.
Vaccines have been one of the most effective public health measures ever adopted and 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 and reducing healthcare costs.
West Virginia’s school immunization requirements have enabled the state to obtain some of the highest kindergarten immunization rates in the nation. As a result, West Virginia has had no outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases. In other states that permit non-medical and personal belief exemptions, outbreaks of preventable childhood diseases have occurred leading to devastating complications as described above. Allowing non-medical exemptions to school immunization requirements will result in an increase of exemptions taken, reducing our immunization rates, and providing an opportunity for vaccine preventable disease outbreaks to occur in our schools and our communities.
Medical exemptions are permitted in West Virginia for children who have a contraindication to a vaccination because of an underlying medical condition (such as an allergy to a vaccine component) or an immune deficiency (such as 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 it is without allowing personal belief exceptions.
Approved & Adopted by the Hancock County Board of Health
January 29, 2025
Ami Arneault, Administrator
Board of Health Members
Ronnie Jones, Chair
John Plesa,
Lisa Ludovici,
Tamara Pettit
Sandra Haspel