Earlier today, the CDC posted the results of its 2010 National Immunization Survey, which monitors vaccination coverage for kids between 19 and 35 months of age. The numbers are encouraging:
Nationally, vaccination coverage increased in 2010 compared with 2009 for ≥1 dose of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR), from 90.0% to 91.5%; ≥4 doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), from 80.4% to 83.3%; the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine (HepB), from 60.8% to 64.1%; ≥2 doses of hepatitis A vaccine (HepA), from 46.6% to 49.7%; rotavirus vaccine, from 43.9% to 59.2%; and the full series of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, from 54.8% to 66.8%.
Coverage for the MMR vaccine, the polio vaccine, and the varicella (or chickenpox) vaccine are all above the national targets of 90% — which is obviously wonderful news. It’s particularly nice to see the uptick in children getting one or more dose of MMR, which reverses what happened between 2008 and 2009, when there was a decrease from 92.1 percent to 90.0 percent.
I’d guessing that a year from now, we’ll learn that MMR rates continued to rise in 2011: It’s hard to imagine how the nationwide measles outbreaks would have any effect other than further reinforcing the importance of getting your shots.
The data that jumped out at me was in the state-by-state breakdown. Only 10 states have MMR rates below 90 percent — and two of those (New York and New Jersey) are in the Tri-State area. New Jersey’s 86.1 figure was particularly eye-popping: the only other state below 87 percent is Montana.
See also:
* The financial implications of the US measles outbreaks
* Is Dr. Bob Sears moving away from his profitable anti-vaccine pandering?
* After disappearing from his family’s site, Sears tells Facebook fans that measles outbreaks not “much risk” for infants
sethmnookin:
BioDataGanache (Jason McDermott)
Litigady (Amy Lombardo)
nswigginton (Nick Wigginton)
OmegaMom (OmegaMom)
I see that 95% had received three or more DTP/DT/DTaP in 2010, same as in 2009. Guess they’ll have to stop blaming the pertussis outbreak on falling vaccine rates.
Unless those that contracted pertussis weren’t vaccinated or hadn’t completed their vaccination series.
As Andrew noted, those geographic areas with a high percentage of unvaccinated inhabitants are seeing more pertussis – like Boulder Colorado – which has had a historical DTAP vaccination rate around 50%.
There’s been 275 cases of pertussis in CO this year alone.
(Source: http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/dc/epidemiology/pertussis/pert_by_county.pdf)
In 2010 there were over 9100 cases of pertussis in California (the most since 1947) and 10 deaths – all of infants less than 3 months old. (Source: http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/outbreaks.html)
Nationwide there were over 27000 cases of pertussis. Worldwide, over 48.5 million people, with nearly 300,000 deaths (source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20091541)
Great news!
Good news for us parents and our children (except for those in NY and NJ, of course) – we’re making progress!
Sounds like good news, particularly for people with medical conditions that preclude vaccination.
You’re not posting my 9/1/2011 comment?
“New Jersey’s 86.1 figure was particularly eye-popping: the only other state below 87 percent is Montana.”
But how can this be? New Jersey has the highest reported estimated autism prevalence in the U.S.. What’s to become of the vaccine hypothesis?
In case any reader is wondering–the above is not serious. But I expect that if there were a high MMR uptake in New Jersey, we’d be hearing about it loud and clear from those promoting vaccine-causation.
Twyla: The distribution of the unvaccinated matters. When the distribution is random, it is likely that the unvaccinated will be surrounded and protected by the vaccinated people around them. When the unvaccinated cluster together, outbreaks that spread rapidly will occur. The recent pertussis outbreaks occurred in areas with such pockets of unvaccinated people.