CDC: Child vaccinations at record high
CDC: Child vaccinations at record high
'Million vulnerable children' remain despite high rate
WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 79 percent of the nation's toddlers are getting vaccinated on time, a record level but not yet good enough, especially in pockets of the country where inoculations lag, federal health officials reported Thursday.
Connecticut was "the superstar," getting 94 percent of toddlers their main series of vaccinations on time last year, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Worst in the nation was Colorado, at 67.5 percent. Four other states had fewer than 75 percent on-time shots: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.
But even with immunization rates steadily rising, there are "a million vulnerable children" today, toddlers who haven't gotten their full series of shots, Gerberding cautioned.
"You can be lulled into a false sense of security" because so many vaccine-preventable diseases have been virtually eliminated in the United States, she said. But many are just a plane ride away, so "we cannot afford to lose our vigilance."
In 2002, almost 75 percent of the nation's 19- to 35-month-olds had received a full series of inoculations against nine diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, meningitis-causing Haemophilus influenza or Hib, measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B.