vaccine

Vaccination Awareness Day is this Friday!

Nov 10, 2021 | mirandaellis

Dr Alison Arwady joins Bruce St James and Judy Pielach to share everything you need to know about Vaccination Awareness Day

Chicago receives $5M to provide vaccines to low-income kids

Mar 10, 2017 | WLSAM Staff

CHICAGO (AP) — The city of Chicago is receiving more than $5 million in federal funding to provide vaccines to children from low-income families.

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth announced Thursday that the $5.2 million is coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccines for Children Program.

Chicago’s Department of Public Health will use it to vaccinate children whose parents may not be able to afford it.

Durbin says the money will make the city “a healthier place to live and raise a family.”

Congress created the Vaccines for Children Program after hundreds of people died between 1989 and 1991 from a measles epidemic. The CDC later found more than half the kids who had measles hadn’t been immunized.

Measles reported in Palatine

Feb 5, 2015 |

(Chicago) A cluster of measles is being investigated at a Palatine daycare center, state and Cook County officials said Thursday.

The cluster includes five children under the age of one who have ties to KinderCare Learning Center, 929 E. Palatine Rd. Two of the five children have been confirmed to have measles. Test results for the three remaining are still pending.

All five are from Cook County, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The source of infection for the children is not immediately known, the Illinois Department of Public Health and Cook County Department of Public Health said in a statement.

All students, staff and faculty have been notified and anyone who has not received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been instructed to stay at home and away from unvaccinated children for the next 21 days, the statement said.

A spokesperson for the KinderCare Learning Center could not immediately be reached.

More details are expected at a Cook County Department of Public Health press conference at 1 p.m. Thursday.

A suburban Cook County resident was reported last week as this year’s first confirmed case of measles in Illinois.

State and county officials warned that other people could have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory illness because of that Cook County resident at three locations: Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights; Supermercado Guzman in Palatine and Vista Clinic, also in Palatine.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease. The CDC says children should be given the first dose of MMR vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age. The second dose should be given 4 weeks later, but is usually given before the start of kindergarten at 4 to 6 years of age.