THE HSE have issued an urgent warning to parents of Junior Infants and first year students.
The health executive’s jab teams have started visiting schools across Ireland.
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Kids in Junior Infants will be given the four in one booster against diphtheria, polio, tetanus and whooping cough.
And they will also be given the second dose of the MMR jab to protect them against measles, mumps and rubella.
Meanwhile, kids in first year of secondary school will be given the HPV and Tdap vaccines.
Parents have been issued with an urgent warning to check for content packs that their kids will be bringing home to get signed.
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HSE’s Dr Lucy Jessop said: “Students will be bringing home immunisation consent packs if they are in first year or Junior Infants.
“We would ask parents to keep an eye out for these and urge them to return these completed to the school, consenting to vaccination of their child as soon as possible. COVID-19 has disrupted our school immunisation programmes.
“We want to achieve high levels of uptake for these programmes during the 2022/23 academic year to prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
She added: “We know 1 case of measles can cause an additional 12-15 cases and we know that meningitis can be very serious very quickly.
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“We also know that HPV causes 1 in 20 cancers worldwide. Vaccination is vitally important to protect children from preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough and polio amongst others.’
“The majority of vaccines will be given on school premises but if this isn’t possible, the HSE will invite students and their parents to a local clinic.”
Separately, it comes as the HSE has said it’s possible Ireland could be hit by a ‘twindemic’ of Covid-19 and flu this winter.
Chief Clinical Officer Colm Henry is urging people to sign up to get a booster Covid-19 vaccine ahead of this winter.
The health expert said that to do so would be in the best interest of the population at large, not just individuals and said that it would help relieve pressure on the nation’s healthcare system.
He told RTE‘s Morning Ireland that although the Omicron variant tore through the population earlier this year there is now a higher level of immunity because of this.