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While more than 300 graduate and undergraduate students received their required vaccinations yesterday, almost 2000 other missed the last scheduled day for innoculations. University Health Services (UHS) officials said.
The vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella are required of all 19,000 Harvard students in order to register, but Massachusetts has extended the deadline to October 17, in order to give all students a chance to be vaccinated.
"We began offering innoculations in early September, but many students did not adhere to the new regulations and it has put a lot of stress on UHS," said David S. Rosenthal '59, director of UHS.
A new Massachusetts law that went into effect August I requires all full-time undergraduate or graduate students born in 1957 or later to have a mumps vaccination, a measles vaccination and two measles shots at least 30 days apart after age one. UHS notified students about the new requirements last April.
With the temporary extension of the dead line granted by the state, students may register on the condition that they promise to get their innoculations by October 17. UHS has scheduled three additional Thursday walk-in- clinics on October 3, October 10 and October 17.
The new state law was passed after a recent measles outbreak in college communities. Students innoculated before one year of age are not sufficiently immunized against measles, mumps and rubella, and are especially susceptible to them in the close interacting community found on college campuses, said Donna Campbell, a UHS nurse.
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