By KURT HAUGLIE

khauglie@mininggazette.com

HANCOCK – Some parents of school-aged children in Michigan choose not to have their children immunized for various reasons, but last year the rate of requested waivers dropped from 2014, according to Barbara Auten.

Auten is the director of public health and education at the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, which covers Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties. She said the reason for the decline in requested waivers given by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is a rule change, which requires parents who want waivers for non-medical reasons to come to their local health department to get information about the various vaccines required for children entering school. Previously, parents could get waivers at their children’s schools.

“They have to see a public health nurse to receive education,” she said. “Then the Health Department would complete the form and stamp it.”

Auten said some parents don’t want their children immunized for religious or philosophical reasons, and even with the education at the health department, they still want the waivers.

“There’s some (parents) that are still reluctant,” she said.

It is possible, Auten said, for parents to accept some vaccines but waive others. The process would be the same as waiving all vaccines. They must still get the education from the public health nurses.

Children entering kindergarten and seventh grade, and students entering a different school district, are required to be immunized or have a waiver, Auten said.

According to a press release from the MDHHS, in 2014, Michigan had the sixth-highest immunization-waiver rate in the country, which made more children susceptible to preventable illnesses.

So far this school year, there were about 8,000 fewer immunization waivers in the state, according to the release.

But the release noted there are still problems with pertussis and small pox in some areas of Michigan, which vaccines can prevent.

The education of parents about the various vaccines required for school children is having a positive effect, Auten said.

“I think that’s why we’ve seen changes in attitude,” she said.