The Georgia School Based Flu Program (SBFP) will be initiated next fall in Gilmer County.
The SBFP is a Georgia Department of Public Health initiative in partnership with the Georgia Department of Education. It seeks to prevent and control seasonal influenza by providing voluntary immunization to school-aged children in a school setting.
Georgia’s SBFP goal “is through an evidence-based, sustainable school-based flu program, significantly reduce seasonal influenza in schools and subsequently increase academic performance associated with reduced school absenteeism related to seasonal influenza.”
Krystal Sumner, a registered nurse and county nurse manager at the Gilmer County Health Department, contacted Gilmer Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs Jan. 7. Sumner’s goal was to forge a partnership between the health department and the board of education to offer SBFP to Gilmer students.
Sumner was invited to speak at the Jan. 13 board of education work session and discussed figures related to the current flu season.
“Since September, which is the official start of flu season in the U.S., we’ve seen 9.7 million cases of flu,” Sumner noted. “Eighty-seven thousand people were hospitalized, and there have been 4,800 flu-related deaths, including 32 children.
“Thirty-eight million school days are missed each year because of flu-related illness.”
Gilmer is located in the North Georgia Health District, which consists of six counties. Currently, three offer on-site flu vaccines to students and 1,000 were issued last year. Across Georgia last flu season, there were 57,000 flu vaccines provided to students in schools.
“If we do this, our target is not necessarily the children who go see their pediatricians or ones who come to the health department for flu shots,” Sumner said. “It’s targeting children who don’t really have a ‘medical home.’
“A lot of these kids don’t go to the doctor or get health checks. Their parents work every day, five days a week, 12 hours a day, and they don’t have time to take them to get a flu shot. So, we’re willing to come in and provide flu vaccines for those kids.”
The plan is to ease into the program and “start small” with a “pilot school,” which will likely be one of the county’s elementary schools.
The SBFP is completely voluntary. Those who wish to take advantage of the program will be required to complete the proper paperwork and insurance forms.
“All paperwork must be completed by the parents and turned in,” Sumner said. “If it’s not completed fully, the child will not receive the vaccine.
“This will be handled through insurance. We do private and what’s called ‘vaccines for children.’ Insurance pays for flu shots and vaccines for children is free and targets children who don’t have insurance or are underinsured, so ultimately there would be no cost.”
The Gilmer Board of Education voted on offering the SBFP at its regular meeting Jan. 16, and it was unanimously approved. The tentative plan is to initiate the program at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year.