Rates of unvaccinated and exempt children on the rise, CDC says | FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV



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WASHINGTON – The percentage of young children in the US, who received vaccines from the United States, published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While coverage for a number of vaccines "remained high and stable overall," the segment of the world's young people under the age of 15 rose to 0.9% for those born in 2011 to 1.3% for those born in 2015, according to one report. In 2001, only 0.3% of children between 19 and 35 months had received no vaccine doses.

"Although the number of children who have been vaccinated by age has increased, most children are still routinely vaccinated," wrote authors from the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "Continued evaluation of prevalence and reasons for nonvaccination is needed, as are improvements in access to and delivery of age-appropriate vaccinations to all children."

Still, coverage in this age group exceeds 90% for a number of vaccines, including poliovirus, Hepatitis B, varicella, and measles, mumps and rubella.

Those who are less likely to be fully vaccinated are those who are eligible to receive the drug. Kids outside of metropolitan areas were also less likely to be covered when compared to those in major cities.

"These disparities were larger than vaccines that require a booster dose in the second year of life," the report said, citing the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine as an example.

While the report does not identify the reasons behind the trend, the authors say that it could have something to do with lack of knowledge of how to access free vaccines; transportation; how close they are when they operate; child care; and a shortage of pediatricians and other health care providers in rural areas.

Vaccination rates varied across states, with rotavirus, highest in Rhode Island (85.1%) and lowest in California (64.7%). Coverage for measles, mumps and rubella was highest in Massachusettes (98.3%) but lowest in Missouri (85.8%).

The second report This past year was the third consecutive year of "a slight increase" in the overall proportion of kids with an exemption, the report says.

"The median percentage of kindergartners with an exemption from at least one vaccine was 2.2%," the report said, and nonmedical vaccine exemption rates ranged from 0.1% in California to 7.5% in Oregon.

Reasons for the exemptions were not included but may involve "parental vaccination hesitancy" and how easy it is to get an exemption in any given state.

Of the states included in the kindergartener analysis (41 or 49 states depending on the vaccine, plus Washington DC), the nation's reported the highest medications for vaccine coverage for varicella; diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; and measles, mumps and rubella. Mississippi had the highest rates.

"During the 2017-18 school year, median kindergarten immunization coverage was close to 95% for MMR, DTaP, and varicella vaccine," the authors wrote.

Previous research showed that some "hot spot" metropolitan areas may be particularly susceptible to outbreaks, including Seattle, Portland and Phoenix. High numbers of unweighted children living in large cities with high incidence of disease, according to researchers.

Other researches have shown that they have a higher incidence of disease.

"Clusters of refusal overlap clusters of outbreaks," Saad B. Omer, a professor of global health and epidemiology and pediatrics at Emory University, previously told CNN.

However, "if it's difficult to obtain an exemption, then you have lower rates of rejection and lower rates of disease," he said.

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