In the United States, vaccine exemption levels for kindergarteners are low for most states and infant vaccination rates are high nationally, according to a report in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Friday.
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“Pockets of children who miss vaccinations exist in our communities and they leave these communities vulnerable to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases”, shares Dr. Anne Schuchat, who is the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
“It’s a way, a checkpoint, where we can take a toll, and say: ‘Has your child been immunized?’ And if they haven’t, it’s an opportunity to provide the immunization” or information to address concerns or fears, she said.
The toddler immunization figures are based on a national survey that reports state rates using a random sample, Losey said, urging skepticism in evaluating them. “The amounts in vaccines are small, and what they don’t realize is that babies who are breast fed get more Thimerosal in milk than in all shots combined”.
The only states with worse coverage were Arkansas and Nevada.
That proposal was among a raft of motions aimed at combating “vaccine hesitancy”, a growing phenomenon public health experts fear is driving immunization rates for key diseases below target in many regions of the country.
Earlier this year there was a measles outbreak at Disneyland in Anaheim.
But, vaccination rates continue to lag in a number of states – a worrisome finding, especially in light of the recent measles outbreak, officials said.
Ohio allows parents to opt out of vaccine requirements for preschool-age children and for school children for philosophical reasons as well as for religious or medical reasons. “Parents hear stories secondhand through other parents and start putting information on social media that everyone sees and causes some parents to question the safety of vaccines”.
That’s down 1.1 percent from the previous school year, when Maine had the fourth highest rate of parents rejecting vaccines. But, a handful of states had vaccination exemption rates that exceeded the national average.
Doctors at Strong Memorial Hospital say there are no new vaccines – the difference is the enforcement.
There were no significant changes observed in vaccination rates for children ages 19-35 months compared to the 2013-2014 year, wrote Holly A. Hill, PhD, of the CDC, and colleagues in a separate MMWR report.
She explained that the Health Department “harmonized” the schedules to meet national requirements on vaccinations.
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During the first seven months of 2015, CDC reported 183 people from more than 20 states were reported to have measles, with five outbreaks resulting in most of those cases.
