Tyler, Texas (KYTX) -- It's getting busy at the Northeast Texas Public Health District. In the past 3 days alone, nearly 250 students have entered the doors to get their required vaccinations.
"They aren't scary, they just hurt a little bit," Salvador Duran, a student in Tyler, said.
He and all of his siblings are knocking out their shots at the Health District today. "I think it's important for me because it's going to keep me from getting sick," Duran said.
His family isn't alone in line. "We have had the whole room full of people, standing-room only, and out the door," Sylvia Warren, Immunization Program Director at NET Health, said.
She and other professionals are giving out hundreds of shots a day, and the vaccines depend on the age of the student. "With college students, they're needing to get a meningitis vaccine as well before they are registered," Warren said.
This year everyone, not just those who live in dorms, need the meningitis vaccine. Middle schoolers also have required immunizations against sicknesses, like the whooping cough. "Every year we know if you're going into 7th grade, you've got to get these if you haven't gotten them in the 6th grade when you were 11," Warren said.
You only need a chickenpox shot if your child has never had come down with the disease before. Every shot costs $8 and the Health District does expect to get even busier as we get closer to public school starting.
Hours are 8-11 a.m. and 1-4 p.m. Wednesdays NET Health is open until 6.
