Survey helps set baseline for teen vaccination

Data on rates are expected to help with the work ahead -- attracting more teens into exam rooms.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Oct. 8, 2007.

Washington -- Adolescents were included for the first time in a large national survey on immunization rates, and the news is good and not so good depending on the vaccine in question.

More than 84% of teens had received three or more doses of the hepatitis B vaccine -- in use for about 15 years -- and 89% received two or more doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine -- in use for decades. But only 11% received the Tdap shot, and about 12% were immunized with the meningococcal conjugate vaccine.

Both of these were licensed and recommended a few years ago. Public health goals call for 90% vaccination rates five years after a vaccine's introduction, so there's time yet for the new products to gain ground.

The information was gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its 2006 National Immunization Survey and published in the Aug. 30 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The data arrive as the health care community tries to craft an adolescent immunization track, with a focus on 11- and 12-year-olds, that mirrors the well-established track followed by the parents of infants and young children. The new information was welcomed by physicians for providing a baseline with which to compare future efforts.

Although data were collected on all immunizations received by teens, interest was piqued by the acceptance rates for the newest vaccines directed specifically at teens. The survey gathered data on two of the three vaccines recommended since 2005 -- the tetanus and diphtheria with acellular pertussis shot and the meningococcal conjugate vaccine.