CDC Study Shows Vaccination Rates for Kids, Teens Are Up

Two studies published late last year by the CDC indicate that vaccination rates for children and teenagers are rising. But although most younger children are getting vaccinated, many teenagers still are not receiving all their recommended immunizations.

The CDC's 2007 National Immunization Survey of children sampled children ages 19-35 months and included those born between January 2004 and July 2006. The study indicated that 90 percent or more of the children surveyed had received all vaccines in the 4:3:1:3:3:1 series except for the fourth dose of diphtheria-tetanus toxoid-acellular pertussis, or DTaP; the coverage rate for the full-four dose DTaP series reached 84.5 percent.

In addition, coverage with one or more doses of varicella reached 90 percent for the first time in this age group.

Overall, more than 77 percent of children received the full 4:3:1:3:3:1 series recommended by the CDC. The federal government's Healthy People 2010 program has set a target goal of 90 percent vaccination rates for all vaccines in the 4:3:1:3:3:1 series.

According to the survey, less than 1 percent of children had received no vaccines by age 19-35 months. However, almost 8 percent of children in this age group had not received measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine and remained susceptible to measles, which in recent years has resurged in some areas of the country.

The CDC's 2007 National Immunization Survey of adolescents sampled teens ages 13-17. The study found administration rates for the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis, or Tdap, vaccine increased from 10.8 percent in 2006 to 30.4 percent in 2007. In addition, rates for administering the quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine, or MCV4, rose from 11.7 percent in 2006 to 32.4 percent in 2007.
The survey also looked at coverage rates for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine for the first time. Study results show that 25.1 percent of adolescent females had received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine.

Two-dose varicella coverage rates in the teen group were low; only 18.8 percent of teens who had not had the disease and had received one dose of the vaccine got the second dose.

However, coverage rates for three or more doses of hepatitis B vaccine and two or more doses of MMR vaccine both approached Healthy People 2010 target rates of 90 percent. Hepatitis B coverage reached 87.6 percent in 2007, increasing from 81.3 percent in 2006, and MMR coverage rates reached 88.9 percent in 2007, compared with 86.9 percent in 2006.

Based on the results of the teen study, the CDC recommends that physicians review teens' vaccination records at each health care visit and administer any vaccines that were missed in childhood.