Unvaccinated children are still at risk from disease

Unvaccinated children are still at risk from disease (Alberta Times) Federal health officials said Thursday that in the 2011-2012 school year, although the vast majority of school children...

Unvaccinated children are still at risk from disease (Alberta Times) Federal health officials said Thursday that although the vast majority of preschool children were vaccinated against preventable diseases such as measles during the 2011-2012 school year, unvaccinated children in some communities are still at risk from the disease. According to Reuters, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in a new report that more than 95% of preschool children are vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, polio and hepatitis B in accordance with federal guidelines. The study found that 94.8 per cent of pre-K children had received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and 93.2 per cent of pre-K children had received two doses of chickenpox vaccine, which is slightly below the federal government's target level of 95 per cent or higher. The study by the federal public health and safety agency, which drew data from 47 states and the District of Columbia, identified areas where children were unvaccinated or had low vaccination rates, but the report did not release the exact locations of those areas. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that although at the state level, vaccination coverage is at or close to reaching federal target levels, infectious diseases like measles remain a public health concern in areas with low vaccination coverage. Last year, there were 17 measles outbreaks across the country, with a total of 222 cases of measles, the highest number since 1996. Dr. Melinda Wharton, deputy director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, pointed out that the vast majority of patients infected with measles from other countries have not been vaccinated against measles, which further highlights the importance of high vaccination rates for American schoolchildren. Some parents of children will not allow or delay vaccinations for their children due to safety concerns. For example, they worry about whether there is a relationship between vaccinations and autism. However, so far, research by the National Centers for Disease Control has not found any relationship between the two.