Page 22 - Delaware Medical Journal - January/February 2019

Survey Shows Delaware Surpassing Vaccination Goals
James E. Talbott, MPA
INTRODUCTION
Immunizations are one of the most successful public health tools used to protect the health of our population. Routinely immunizing our children has saved countless lives, contributed to longer life expectancy, reduced health disparities, improved quality of life, and saved trillions of dollars1 in societal costs. Immunizations keep our children healthy, in school, and learning, and reduce the number of days that parents and guardians must take off from work to care for sick children. Keeping children’s vaccinations current lessens disease in the community and helps protect other children who for medical reasons cannot be immunized.
The State of Delaware requires that children in licensed daycare centers
and entering kindergarten through grade 12 at public, private, and home schools be immunized against certain communicable diseases before enrolling in school. Delaware Administrative Code 4202, “Control of Communicable and Other Disease Conditions,” requires immunizations against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR); tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis/whooping cough (Tdap); polio (IPV or OPV); hepatitis B; and
chickenpox (varicella).2 These diseases can be fatal or have serious complications that can result in blindness, deafness, and mental retardation.
“Immunizations are important at all ages, and especially for children,” said Division of Public Health (DPH) Director Karyl
T. Rattay, MD, MS. “When a child is up- to-date on his or her immunizations, the child is protecting him or herself as well as the community.”
Due to the successes of vaccination, fewer health care providers and parents have witnessed the serious and sometimes life-threatening consequences of vaccine- preventable diseases. Yet small numbers of cases can lead to the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases, especially if there are increasing numbers of unvaccinated people.
Mumps cases and outbreaks sporadically surface nationally and in Delaware. In the U.S. in 2016, 6,366 cases of mumps were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).3 While no cases of mumps were reported in Delaware in 2016, during February and March of 2018, Delaware had 19 mumps cases associated with two multi-cultural
dances held in New Castle County.4
One child under the age of 5 years was infected. A total of 21 cases of mumps from that investigation were reported to time since 2005 that Delaware recorded more than three mumps cases during any calendar year.
Occasional outbreaks of whooping
cough (pertussis), a highly contagious respiratory disease, occur in Delaware. Typically, the outbreaks have occurred among the state’s Amish community, a population that is largely unvaccinated.
In 2014, 202 cases of pertussis — the state’s largest caseload since 2005 — were reported to DPH. The actual number of cases was likely higher. There were 20 pertussis cases in Delaware in 2015 and 15 in 2016.5 In June 2018, DPH learned
of a new outbreak of pertussis among its Amish community. As of December 31, the case count for this outbreak is 183 considered probable.
In 2014, the United States experienced
a record number of measles cases, with 667 cases from 27 states reported to
the CDC. It was the largest number of cases recorded since measles elimination
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Del Med J | January/February 2019 | Vol. 91 | No. 1