The snow-covered peaks have returned. Football fields, skate parks, music lessons and, yes, even libraries are filled with busy, healthy kids – just as they should be during the back- to-school, invigorating days of fall.
Recent news reports improved chances of staying healthy and avoiding measles, chicken pox and even whooping cough. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Immunization Survey report childhood immunizations in Colorado have climbed significantly and we now rank 16th out of the 50 states. Eighty-three percent of our 2- to 3-year-old children are well-immunized.
Before vaccines were developed, each year polio would paralyze 10,000 children, 4 million were infected with measles (killing 3,000), and 8,000 children died from pertussis (whooping cough) in the United States alone. How grateful would those parents have been to have had the opportunity to ferry their child from soccer to dance and to the library to find a copy of the book they left at school, the daily activities that fill every minute of the family’s schedule today.
Currently, there are 13 diseases that can largely be prevented with safe and effective vaccines. A landmark vaccine has recently been approved by the FDA and has proven to be 90 percent effective against many forms of cervical cancer.
Certainly there are parents who have concerns about vaccine safety, just like there was more than 175 years ago after Edward Jenner’s vaccine successfully reduced the incidence of small pox. With less disease, parents fear the vaccine more than the disease, even though the bacteria that cause diseases have not disappeared from our environment.
If vaccines were not routinely used, Colorado could expect more than 70,000 cases of vaccine-preventable infections (DPT, MMR, polio) in children per year. “We have been reminded through outbreaks of infectious disease in other states that Colorado is not immune to disease outbreaks in our state. In fact, in 2004, Colorado taxpayers covered $3,698,256 in … hospital costs from vaccine-preventable disease, and the bill was even steeper in 2003, with costs of $10,415,092,” reports Dr. Robert Braydent of The Children’s Hospital in Denver. Poorly immunized children cost every citizen and every business in Colorado money. More importantly, infants and children who are particularly vulnerable are ill with diseases that can be prevented.
Just as ballet, book reports and a fast pitch require effort and repetition, we all need to continue efforts to protect Colorado children through immunizations. The nonprofit Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition has been working with over 60 public and private organizations, many individuals and policymakers to fully immunize all Colorado children through community-based programs, public awareness and education to reach more children. More than 56,800 children are still not adequately immunized, and 188 children are born in Colorado each day. Each of these children is at risk for 13 diseases that can be prevented with safe and effective vaccines.
I challenge public and private health-care providers, civic organizations, parents and policymakers to sustain these improved immunization levels. We must maintain efforts to reduce barriers and expand access to immunizations, linking practices and clinics to the Colorado Immunization Information System. We need to continue to offer educational opportunities for physicians and their staff who immunize children and to promote the importance of immunizations to parents and caregivers.
Immunizations are one of the most important ways parents can protect their children against serious disease, and they are extremely safe thanks to advancements in medical research and ongoing review by doctors, researchers and public health officials.
Let’s keep our children healthy and well-immunized.
Martin Pirnat, a family physician, practices in Durango. He is president of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition. For more information, go to www.childrensimmunization.org.
