Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Back to School requirements mean your kids may need new immunizations

(Columbia, SC – WIS) Back to school or back to germs?

August is “National Immunization Awareness Month,” according to the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control. The goal is to not only remind parents of kids headed back to school about the importance or children getting immunized, but to also remind adults and seniors, too.

Third-grade has been added to the requirement for (2) doses of varicella. A child with a positive history of the disease is considered immune and is exempt from this requirement.

Fifth-grade has been added to the requirement for three (3) doses of oral and/or inactivated polio vaccine with at least one (1) dose received on or after the fourth birthday.

Eleventh-grade has been added to the requirement for (1) Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) booster. Tdap is routinely administered at 11-12 years of age; however, a dose administered on or after the seventh birthday will meet this requirement.-graders as they head back to school.

North Saluda Water Quality Enhancement Project Underway

(Marrieta, SC – Travelers REst Tribune) The project is part of a cooperative watershed planning effort headed by SOS and funded largely through the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Nonpoint Source Program to address sediment in the North Saluda River and Saluda Lake. The plan will provide a targeted and effective strategy for installing projects to help control and minimize sediment runoff to the North Saluda River downstream to Saluda Lake, a drinking water source for the Easley area.

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