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Children Head To School Unvaccinated, Risking Serious
Complications
Leading Pediatric Nurse Association Encourages Parents To
Get Their Children
Vaccinated
CHERRY HILL, NJ --(INTERNET WIRE)--Aug 06, 2001-- The
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) is mounting a
campaign to protect the estimated three million children heading back to school
this year who are at risk of chickenpox. These children, ages 6-12, who have
neither been vaccinated against the virus nor contracted the disease, are at
risk of more serious complications than younger children.
This campaign is in response to a NAPNAP-sponsored survey,
released today, showing that a significant number of parents are not only
unaware of the potentially serious complications of chickenpox - particularly
for older children - but also are uninformed about the benefits of vaccination.
The survey, conducted by Yankelovich Partners, Inc.,
examined the knowledge of 500 parents of 6-12 year olds about chickenpox.
Top-line findings showed:
·
50 percent of parents whose kids are at risk for
chickenpox say they’d rather their child have the disease than the vaccine - a
statistic in stark contrast with last year’s NAPNAP survey, where 73 percent of
children themselves said that they would rather have the vaccine than
chickenpox.
·
One in four parents are reluctant to vaccinate because
they do not feel that vaccinating children against chickenpox is important.
·
42 percent of parents did not know that a chickenpox
vaccine is available.
Parents are not aware of dangers of all the serious
complications of
chickenpox
·
Nearly 90 percent of parents were unaware that
chickenpox could have serious complication including death.
·
33 percent of parents incorrectly stated that if you do
not contract chickenpox as a child, you probably would never get it as an
adult.
·
36 percent of parents consider chickenpox a harmless
disease and 36 percent believe that chickenpox is only as harmful as acne.
·
After parents were informed of the serious
complications associated with chickenpox, 85 percent said they would vaccinate.
Currently, only 22 states require the chickenpox vaccine
for daycare and school entry; in the remaining 28 states, many parents skip
this important step. According to the survey, 33 percent of parents said they
did not vaccinate simply because their child’s school did not require it.
“Children in the 6-12 year age range are in a dangerous ‘vaccination
limbo,’” said NAPNAP representative Linda Juszczak, DNSc, MPH, CPNP, North Shore
University Hospital, Long Island, New York. “They were born before the vaccine
became available in 1995 and may not have been vaccinated. Because many younger
children now routinely receive chickenpox vaccinations, these older children
have a lower chance of being exposed to the virus now, increasing their risk of
exposure as they age.”
“Older individuals, including teens, young adults, adults,
and older adults are 10 to 20 times more likely than children to experience
complications related to chickenpox,” she explained. “Nearly 20 percent of
adults with chickenpox develop pneumonia. This disease is not a benign rite of
passage.”
Six years after its licensure by the Food and Drug
Administration, the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine is recommended by all major
vaccine policy-making organizations in the U.S. including the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Yet the latest national vaccination rate reported for chickenpox was only about
63 percent, far below that of other childhood vaccine-preventable diseases.
NAPNAP, founded in 1973, is a non-profit specialty nursing
organization devoted to improving the quality of infant and childcare. NAPNAP
promotes high standards of child health care through education, research and legislative
action involving over 6,200 members in 47 chapters across the country.
For more information about NAPNAP or the chickenpox vaccine,
please contact
Joe Casey, Director of Membership & Communications, at
856-667-1773, or
visit the NAPNAP web site at www.napnap.org
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INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR
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KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED
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