Vaccination coverage among U.S. teens increased nationally by as much as 15% in 2009, compared with 2008, but there is still room for improvement.
The finding, released Aug. 19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s MMWR, draws on data from adolescents aged 13-17 years who participated in the National Immunization Survey for Teens, which has been conducted every year since 2006.
To gather the data for the survey, parents of teens were contacted randomly by telephone and were asked for permission to contact the child’s provider for vaccination histories. This year’s national survey included 20,066 individual records from all 50 states, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands (MMWR 2010;59:1018-23).
According to the report’s authors led by Dr. Christina Dorell of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, coverage with one or more doses of the Tdap vaccine (tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis vaccine) increased significantly from 41% of all U.S. teens in 2008 to 56% in 2009.
There was also a significant rise in coverage of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY), from 42% coverage in 2008 to 54% in 2009.
And, among females, there were similarly significant jumps both in the percentage of girls receiving at least one dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine – from 37% to 44% – as well as girls receiving all three recommended doses, from 18% to 27%.
Nevertheless, there were some areas of stagnation. For example, coverage with two or more doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine was not significantly different from coverage during 2008 (89.1% in 2009 and 89.3% in 2008).
Looking at chickenpox, in 2009, “75.7% had protection from varicella disease (i.e., history of varicella or received [two or more] doses of VAR),” wrote the authors, up from 73.5% in 2008—an insignificant increase.
And coverage with three or more doses of the hepatitis B vaccine increased only slightly (although significantly), from 88% to 90%.
The report also breaks down vaccination according to state, with Mississippi coming in dead last for coverage with one of more doses of the MenACWY vaccine (19%), with one or more doses of Tdap (23%), and one or more doses of the HPV vaccine (23%).
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, called the 2009 data “mixed” in an accompanying CDC press release. A complete breakdown of vaccination rates by state and nationally, going back to 2006, is available at the CDC.
“We can see that more parents of adolescents are electing to protect their children from serious diseases such as pertussis, meningitis, and cervical cancer, but there is clear room for improvement in our system’s ability to reach this age group,” she said. For example, “Pertussis outbreaks in several states and an increase in pertussis-related infant deaths in California highlight how important it is for preteens to receive the Tdap booster.”