Study Shows Many Children Not Completely Vaccinated
Two-fifths of the children in some of the nation’s largest cities have received the recommended vaccinations by age 2, a study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes.
Only 40 percent of children studied had gone through the full schedule of vaccinations, according to researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study, which examined medical records, also found that children were not receiving the vaccinations at recommended intervals.
Two-year-olds in Boston fared the best in the study, with a 58 percent immunization rate; those in Houston had the worst rate at 11 percent.
In studying medical records for students in 18 cities and three counties, researchers found that by school age, an average of 85 percent of children had been fully vaccinated.
“To improve coverage,’' the report says, “we must focus on vaccinating children less than 2 years of age rather than focusing on school-age children.’'
