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Health Services Financing and Utilization
vaccination coverage
The Healthy People 2010 objective for the complete
series of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations is immunization
of at least 90 percent of 19- to 35-month-olds with the full series
of vaccines. Data released from the CDC’s 2003-04 National
Immunization Survey show that 80.5 percent of children 19 to 35
months of age had received the recommended 4:3:1:3:3 series of vaccines
(4 DTP, 3 polio, 1 MCV, 3 Hib, 3 HepB); 74.5 percent of 19- to 35-month-olds
had received the 4:3:1:3:3:1 series, which includes the varicella
(chicken pox) vaccine. In the past 5 years, the greatest increases
in vaccination rates have occurred with the hepatitis B and varicella
vaccines (varicella was added to the schedule in 1996). Since the
1998-99 survey, the vaccination rate for hepatitis B has increased
5 percent to 92.3 percent, while the varicella vaccination rate
has risen over 60 percent, from 52.1 percent in 1998-99 to 86.2
percent in 2003-04. Racial and ethnic disparities exist in vaccination
rates, and non-Hispanic Black children and American Indian/Alaska
Native children (data not shown) have the lowest vaccination rates
for each of the major vaccines.
Each year, the CDC publishes an update of the
recommended childhood immunization schedule (see facing page). The
2005 schedule continues to encourage the routine use of hepatitis
B vaccines for all infants before hospital discharge and the use
of yearly influenza vaccines for all children 6 to 23 months of
age.
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Table: Estimated Vaccination Rates Among Children
Aged 19-35 Months, by Race/Ethnicity: 2003-04
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Link: Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization
Schedule, United States, 2005
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