KEYWORDS:
sentinel sites; vaccine shortages
BACKGROUND:
Between December 2000 and July 2002 vaccine shortages occurred for Td, DTaP, MMR, PCV7 and Varicella vaccines; PCV7 remains in short supply. The CDC’s immunization registry sentinel site project is a sentinel network of immunization registries.
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the impact of vaccine shortages on vaccination coverage.
To evaluate the extent of catch-up following resumption of vaccine supply.
METHOD:
We analyzed individual immunization histories for two sentinel sites, Oklahoma and Michigan, for children born between November 1996 and October 2002. Using available shot dates, we identified children with missed opportunities for each of the vaccines for which shortages occurred, and compared missed opportunity rates before, during and after the period of shortages. We also examined the extent to which children who missed opportunities for vaccination were subsequently brought up-to-date for missed vaccines.
RESULT:
CONCLUSION:
Immunization registries may be a useful tool to measure the impact of vaccine shortages. Analysis of individual level data offers analytic potential beyond what is available with routine reported data from sentinel sites.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
To understand the potential of registries in general, and sentinel sites specifically to monitor the impact of vaccine shortages.
Back to The Fast and The Focused: Timely Detection of Changes to Vaccination Coverage and Pockets of Under-Immunization
Back to The 2003 Immunization Registry Conference (October 27-29, 2003)