US child vaccination rates high

The portion of U.S. children age 2 and under who had not received any vaccinations in 2011 was less than 1 percent, health officials say. A report published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said vaccination coverage for many preventable diseases increased from the previous year. This report, based on 2011 National Immunization Survey results, described national, state and selected local area vaccination coverage by ages 19-35 months for children born during from January 2008 to May 2010. Immunization rates for many routine vaccines in 2011 were 90 percent or more among children ages 19 months to 35 months, the report said. Vaccination coverage remained above the Healthy People 2020 target of 90 percent. The vaccination rate for measles, mumps and rubella was 91.6 percent; 93.9 percent for poliovirus; 90.8 percent for varicella or chickenpox; and 91.1 percent for hepatitis B. There appeared to be no variation of vaccination coverage by race or ethnicity, but both white and black children living below the poverty level had lower immunization rates than those living above the poverty level, the report said.