Epidemiologist-Vaccine Preventable Disease Surveillance

Background:
Childhood immunizations continue to make a tremendous impact in reducing the morbidity and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases throughout the United States. Maintaining high vaccination levels is one of the nation's leading health objectives, in reducing the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases. Periodic assessment of childhood immunization coverage levels is an important component of the Ohio Department of Health Immunization Program's goal to reduce the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases among all Ohioans.

Objectives:
Estimate the proportion of children in Ohio's eight largest cities, selected affluent suburbs, and three selected rural counties enrolled in kindergarten in the 2007-2008 school year who had received four doses of DTaP, three doses of polio vaccine, and one dose of MMR by their second birthday.

Methods:
A random sample of 25 kindergarten student immunization records were reviewed from a random sample of 35 public, private, and parochial schools in each of the cities. A complete census of kindergarten immunization records was performed in each of the selected suburban schools. All known schools were visited in the rural counties, and a complete census of kindergarten immunization records was performed.

Results:
The immunization completion rates for the 4:3:1 series ranged from 60 percent to 73 percent in the cities, 78 percent to 88 percent in the suburbs, and 68 percent to 76 percent in the rural counties.

Conclusions:
Rates appear to be improving in the cities; however cities appear to be lagging behind suburbs. Half of the surveyed cities had a lower rate than the lowest rate among the three rural counties in 2008. No individual city had an immunization rate that reached the highest rural county rate in 2008.