INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE STUDY SAYS IMMUNIZATIONS MUST INCREASE
Only 71 to 90 percent of 2-year-olds in the United States are fully immunized, the Centers for Disease Control reports. And according to a study just released by the Institute of Medicine Committee on Immunization Finance Policies and Practices, that number is too low.
David R. Smith, M.D., vice-chairman of the immunization committee and president of Texas Tech Medical Center, says the fact that all children are not fully immunized should serve as a wake-up call.
"Immunizations are at some of the highest levels we've ever had in this nation, but they are not sufficient," Smith said. "They are not sufficient to cover children in industrial areas, children of migrant farm workers and children in some of our inner cities."
Smith noted that only 73 percent of children in Texas are fully immunized, making Texas one of the four lowest ranking states in coverage. Houston is one of the nation's least covered metropolitan areas, with only about 55 percent of children immunized.
The committee recommends a renewal and strengthening of the federal and state immunization partnership to prevent infectious disease; to monitor, sustain and improve vaccine coverage rates of child and adult populations within more numerous and increasingly diversified health care settings; and to respond to vaccine safety concerns.
"The federal government and each state are going to have to provide additional resources to make sure that there is a solid platform from which to launch all of our initiatives against these deadly diseases," Smith said.
Smith noted that the nation and Texas had a wake-up call in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the measles outbreak. "We became complacent," he said. "We thought we could take care of this infectious disease, that we had eradicated it or would eliminate it from harming human beings. That certainly wasn't the case.
"If we don't stay on top of the new vaccines and make sure that adults and children are fully immunized," he continued, "then we could have another resurgence of bacterial or viral diseases that could be very deadly."
A specific component of the committee's report, which was requested by the Centers for Disease Control, focuses on adult immunization.
"The report points out that we're making even less progress in the area of immunization of adults," Smith said. "We're only covering about 63 percent of all adults who should be immunized for influenza. And more critically, in some cases our coverage rate for adults with the pneumococcal vaccine -- the disease that causes severe pneumonia in adults -- is only about 43 percent."
The study, which was implemented by the National Academy of Sciences, recommends that federal and state governments adopt a national finance strategy that would create a $1.5 billion fund over the first five years to strengthen the infrastructure for child and adult immunizations.
"What we need to do is be sure that we protect our population from the diseases we can prevent," Smith said. "The answer is in front of us."
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Contact: Julie Toland, Texas Tech Medical Center, 806-743-2160
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