Oregon Public Broadcasting

State officials are trying to contact 22,000 Oregonians to tell them that they need to be revaccinated. Krisitan Foden-Vencil reports.

Every year, the state checks about a quarter of the fridges in which vaccine is held.

Jim Sellers, with the Oregon Department of Human Services, says this year health workers found problems at three large private clinics.

Jim Sellers: "The problems ranged from temperatures being too warm, or too cold. To record keeping not being adequate or in some cases there simply not being records to which the storage procedures could be tied."

Sellers says vaccines needs to be stored at a precise temperature, otherwise they may not work. Still he says, patients needn't worry, they just need to go and get revaccinated.

The biggest population that's affected is children, who were supposed to have been inoculated against diseases like tetanus, diphtheria, and measles.

Sellers says the Oregon Public Health Division requires clinics to notify patients if there are problems and provide new vaccinations for free.

Jim Sellers: "The clinics are doing that. In addition, the clinics have made significant investments in working on procedures and in some cases investing in new refrigeration and temperature monitoring equipment to do the best they can to ensure that this doesn't happen again."

Patients are being notified by mail.

The clinics are run by Providence Health & Services, The High Desert Medical Center and The Corvallis Clinic.