The Drive to Save Lives : Businesses and Community Join Hands and Hearts to Offer the Public Vaccinations

The use of vaccinations to reduce disease--especially in young children--has been one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. In the 21-year period that began in 1960, for example, the number of cases of pertussis or whooping cough, nationwide, was reduced from 14,800 to less than 1,250. Since the late 1980s, however, that success has been taken for granted. Along the way, the prices of these vaccines have also soared, leaving them out of reach of the poor. But the diseases have not gone away.

Who can forget, for example, the Los Angeles County measles epidemic that killed 40 children and left another 2,700 hospitalized between 1987 and 1991? That was a symptom of the fact that California does not rank highly in terms of the percentage of its 2-year-olds who are fully immunized. And Los Angeles County ranked next to last (at 40%) in a state ranking of counties based on the percentage of fully immunized 2-year-olds, just ahead of Tulare and Fresno at 38%. The national percentage is 53%.

That is why we are pleased to applaud what may be the largest private sector immunization drive ever undertaken in the region. Over the course of the rest of the year, it will involve the sponsoring of more than 250 free clinics throughout the San Fernando Valley. Operation Immunization, as it has been dubbed, involves about 25 companies, foundations and community groups at an overall cost to them of about $250,000.

Burbank-based UniHealth America, which operates hospitals in the Valley, is spearheading the drive. The county’s Department of Health Services is picking up the not inconsiderable cost of the vaccines, which are being administered for free in local schools and at some McDonald’s restaurants. That’s according to Greg Waskul, spokesman for the UniHealth America Foundation. Isabel Licon and her son, Irvine, pictured here, have already taken advantage of the program.

For more information on the sites and schedules, you can call a toll-free, 24-hour hot line at 1-800-618-6660. It just might save the life of your child.