Measles, Other Back-To-School Vaccines: What RI Parents Need To Know

RHODE ISLAND — The share of Rhode Island kindergarteners who are up-to-date on their vaccinations against measles has remained steady, contrary to national trends that show declining immunization rates against one of the world’s most contagious diseases.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows the percentage of children vaccinated against MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) declined nationally from about 95 percent in 2019-2020 to 94 percent the following school year and to 93 percent in the 2021-2022 school year, the last year for which data is available.

Though the decrease is slight, the CDC data shows about 250,000 school children nationwide are unprotected against measles, mumps and rubella, diseases that had been all but eradicated for decades before a tide of vaccine hesitancy began sweeping the country.

The MMR vaccination rate is the lowest in a decade, below the Healthy People 2030 target of 95 percent immunization coverage, which officials say is the level needed to prevent community transmission of measles.

In all, 32 states saw declines in MMR coverage in the 2021-2022 school year — the biggest dip in Georgia, where rates were down more than 5 percent. Rates varied from 78 percent in Alaska to 98.6 percent.

Vaccination rates for DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis) and varicella (chickenpox) also declined nationwide.

In Rhode Island, vaccination rates are:

MMR: 97.3 percent
DTaP: 97 percent
Varicella: 97 percent
Polio: 97.1 percent

Overall, the CDC recommends that children receive vaccinations against 14 diseases by they’re 2, and receive additional doses and immunizations through age 18.

Vaccination requirements vary by state. All states require that incoming kindergartners get polio vaccines, and all but Iowa require measles vaccinations.

Rhode Island requires the following vaccinations for entry into kindergarten:

• 5 doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccine
• 3 doses of Hepatitis B vaccine
• 2 doses of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine
• 4 doses of Polio vaccine
• 2 doses of Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine.

Exemptions are allowed for medical and religious reasons in Rhode Island. To qualify for a medical exemption, the child's parent must get an exemption form signed by a medical provider.

The number of exemptions increased to 2.6 percent in the 2021-22 school year, up from 2.2 the prior school year.

A Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor Poll in December showed that while the majority of Americans (71 percent) said healthy kids should get the MMR vaccine before starting kindergarten, but support is waning. Almost 3 in 10 (28 percent) said parents should be able to choose to vaccinate their children or not, even if it means putting their classmates at risk.

A pre-pandemic poll taken by Pew Research Center in October 2019 showed 82 percent of U.S. adults said measles vaccinations should be a condition of enrolling in kindergarten. Only 16 percent said measles vaccines should be discretionary.

National Institutes of Health studies suggest COVID-19 vaccine misinformation may be contributing to greater hesitancy about childhood vaccines.

Disruptions in day-to-day life also likely contributed to the lower measles coverage rates, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in November.

“The paradox of the pandemic is that while vaccines against COVID-19 were developed in record time and deployed in the largest vaccination campaign in history, routine immunization programs were badly disrupted, and millions of kids missed out on life-saving vaccinations against deadly diseases like measles,” he said. “Getting immunization programs back on track is absolutely critical. Behind every statistic in this report is a child at risk of a preventable disease.”

At the time, only about 81 percent of children worldwide had received their first measles dose, and only 71 percent had received their second, the lowest global coverage rates of the first dose since 2008.

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