As summer break winds down, parents, now is the time to start thinking about your child's immunizations.
They need to be up-to-date before the new school year begins.
And we found out, there's at least one vaccine that adults need to be thinking about as well.
The number of whooping cough cases are on an uptick across the nation.
And just last a week, an infant in the Oklahoma City area died.
"Oklahoma has seen increases in whooping cough just recently," said Rebecca Grubb.
She's manager of the Tulsa Health Department's Immunization department.
She's urging both children and adults to get protected.
"Immunizations are best as a preventative measure, so we hope to immunize people when they are young and start that protection for them. And then school requires a set of immunizations."
Oklahoma law requires school kids be immunized against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, hepatitis A and B.
In addition, 7th and 8th graders need a booster dose of T-dap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough).
Parents of adolescents are also urged to ask their health care provider or clinic about the vaccine to prevent bacterial meningitis and the human papillomavirus vaccine.
Those vaccines are not required for school.
First-time college kids might be required to have the meningococcal vaccine, especially if they plan to live on-campus in a dorm.
Most private health insurance plans cover the cost of vaccines.
Children who don't have coverage, can receive vaccines at any county health department through the "Vaccines For Children" program.
For more information, we've set up a newslink to the right of this story.
You can also call 1-800-234-6196.
