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July 22, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Ohio Lags in Children Vaccinated"

Akron Beacon Journal (www.ohio.com/bj) (07/20/02) P. B1; Wheeler, Tracy

Ohio has just a 74 percent coverage rate for childhood immunizations, but state health officials have adopted a new Internet approach to it in an effort to achieve the national goal of a 90 percent immunization rate.  The Statewide Immunization Information System is an online registry that can track a patient's immunization history and automatically mail out reminders to parents.  Nationally, the average compliance rate for childhood immunization is 79 percent, despite the goal of 90 percent set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Matt Plummer, Ohio's health planning administrator, said the compliance issue begins to be a problem by the time the child is two years old, as booster shots due at ages 12 months and 24 months are "just not high on the priority list for a lot of parents."  A second problem is that one in five kids may see more than one doctor before age two, so vaccination records are scattered among providers.  The registry should alleviate the problem of not knowing or remembering when a child received a vaccination.

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