As Turkish families prepare for the new school term, paediatricians highlight the importance of reviewing and completing children’s vaccinations to prevent outbreaks of preventable diseases in crowded school environments.
As families prepare for the new school term, paediatricians in Turkey are urging them to do more than buy uniforms and books: check every child’s vaccination card and close any gaps before classrooms, school buses, canteens and dormitories fill up. Şenay Pir Zengi of Atlas University’s medical faculty said the back-to-school period was a practical moment to review missed doses with a family doctor. That advice is in line with Turkey’s Ministry of Health, which says an interrupted vaccination schedule does not need to be started again; children should continue from the point where they left off and complete the remaining doses for their age.
The warning comes as children and young people return to crowded indoor settings where infections spread more easily. Pir Zengi said parents should be alert not only to respiratory illnesses such as influenza, Covid-19, RSV, adenovirus and rhinovirus, but also to vaccine-preventable infections including whooping cough, measles, rubella, mumps and chickenpox. She also highlighted pneumococcal and meningococcal disease, as well as tuberculosis in shared dormitory accommodation. In communal eating and living spaces, hepatitis A, rotavirus and norovirus gastroenteritis and salmonella can also circulate, while close contact can help spread head lice, scabies, impetigo, fungal skin infections, infectious conjunctivitis and hand, foot and mouth disease.
Vaccination is only part of the picture. Pir Zengi said children with fever should not be sent back to school until they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without using fever-reducing medicine, and she advised against sharing bottles, towels, combs and other personal items. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in guidance for schools, similarly says cleaner air reduces the spread of respiratory viruses and recommends measures such as meeting minimum outdoor-air ventilation standards, opening windows when it is safe to do so and using portable air cleaners in poorly ventilated spaces. The agency also says schools should keep soap, water and paper towels readily available, and use hand sanitiser containing at least 60% alcohol when sinks are not accessible.
The catch-up checks that doctors are pressing for are specific, not general. Pir Zengi said families should make sure children have received their booster doses due between ages four and six, the adolescent tetanus-diphtheria booster and any missing measles, mumps and rubella doses, especially with measles outbreaks still a concern internationally and in the wider region. She also said hepatitis A vaccination should be completed in two doses and that, even if the second dose is late, the course should not be restarted. Seasonal influenza vaccine can be given from six months of age, she said, and should be renewed every year; for children aged six months to eight years receiving it for the first time, two doses at least four weeks apart are needed. Earlier reporting by Anadolu Agency also noted that influenza tends to circulate from September to March and can lead to complications including lung infection, sinusitis and middle-ear infection.
Turkey’s official immunisation guidance underpins much of that advice. The Ministry of Health says the national childhood programme protects against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Hib, pneumococcal disease, measles, rubella, mumps and chickenpox. It also says vaccination cards should be kept safely, because they provide the record needed to judge what is missing and what has already been given. Routine vaccines in the national schedule are provided free of charge through ministry institutions, including family health centres and hospitals.
Doctors are also drawing attention to vaccines that sit outside the national schedule but may still matter for some children and teenagers. Pir Zengi said rotavirus, meningococcal, seasonal flu and HPV vaccines could be considered after a doctor’s assessment. An explainer published by Emsey Hospital this month said two different meningococcal vaccines are available in Turkey, one covering A, C, W and Y strains and another covering type B, with dosing depending on the age at which vaccination begins; it said immunisation can start after the second month of life. The same article described the best window for annual flu vaccination as September to December and said HPV vaccination is most effective before sexual activity begins, adding that boys as well as girls can benefit from it from a public-health perspective.
That broader emphasis on school entry as a health checkpoint is not unique to Turkey. The World Health Organization says schools are an effective place to check vaccination status, identify children who are unvaccinated or under-immunised and create opportunities to deliver missed doses. WHO’s planning tool on school vaccination checks says school-based programmes can complement routine services and help preserve home vaccination records. The organisation also points to school health settings as a useful platform for adolescent vaccines such as HPV. The CDC says schools can go further by hosting vaccination clinics on site or linking families to off-site vaccination services.
The practical message from clinicians is that delay should not become abandonment. Pir Zengi said families should not assume a missed dose no longer matters just because a child is older, and she noted that different vaccines can be given in the same session without reducing their effect. She also said a simple cold without fever is not usually a reason to postpone a vaccination. For parents who are uncertain, the advice from both doctors and the ministry is to turn to paediatricians, family doctors and primary care clinics rather than social media, and to use the first weeks of term to make sure every child’s record is up to date.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
