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

Health officials encourage parents to get child vaccinated

(WSPA) – At the end of every summer, most parents begin to stress about one thing.

“Oh goodness, going back to school is always a kind of crazy time school shopping for school supplies usually new shoes and new clothes,” said Erin VanDuinen, Anderson County parent.

But it also typically includes that yearly visit to the doctor. There are a number of immunizations that are required for your child prior to heading back to school.

“Its prevention, you are preventing a lot of major illnesses or death just by getting a simple shot,” said nurse Amber Littmann.

‘You need treatment along with prescription’; focus on opioid addiction as medical issue is vital, officials say

Opioid addiction is a complex problem that has to been seen more as a medical condition, and less as a moral failure, if addicts are to get the help they need, health and law enforcement officials say.

“There is not a silver bullet, but I think that the United States government needs to step up to the plate and do more to treat it more kindly and participate in finding ways to treat it more effectively,” Dr. Monnie Singleton of Singleton Health Center in Orangeburg said.

“Incarceration doesn’t do a thing. … What they need to do is really embrace the fact that opioid addiction is a medical condition,” he said.

Opioid prescription rates have been linked to addiction and overdose.

One City Two Canals at Columbia’s Riverfront Park offers update from flood

Columbia, SC (WLTX) – The One City Two Canals tour on Columbia’s Riverfront Park came with a flood update and a cool history lesson Saturday afternoon.

If you want to know anything about Riverfront Park, you ask Park Ranger Karen Swank Kustafik. When the October flood of 2015 hit this area, it breached the oldest hydro’s. “That’s pretty remarkable because it had been operating consistently from 1898 until October 2015” said Kustafik.

All last year they had a series of engineering tests as a part of the re-building plan. Divers were also taking pictures of the head gates that allow water to come into or out of the Columbia Canal.