Federal health officials recently announced that U.S. toddlers got the recommended vaccinations against childhood diseases at record levels in 2007.
The findings based on data from 17,017 children:
A record 77.4% of children in this age group received the full recommended series of vaccinations- 99% of children got all but one of the six individual vaccines in the series (the one exception was the four doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis or whooping cough vaccine, received by 84.5 percent of toddlers)
- fewer than 1 percent got no vaccines
The immunization program’s success hinges on parents’ trust in vaccine safety, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.
Public health officials have expressed concern in recent years that some parents fearful about vaccine safety were declining to get their children vaccinated, making them more apt to catch and spread preventable diseases.
“We really recognize that ultimately our program is dependent on trust — trust of moms and dads, trust of caretakers and trust of the clinicians, pediatricians (and) family practice professionals who take care of our children,” Gerberding told reporters in a conference call.
CDC officials have blamed this year’s largest U.S. outbreak of measles since 1997, with 135 people sickened, on lack of vaccination often due to “personal or parental beliefs.”
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