PARENTS URGED TO GET EARLY CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATIONS - Outbreaks Threatens Ohio Children

(06/02/2014)

Infant immunizations can save a child's life. That's why the state Department of Health and Human Resources is promoting National Infant Immunization Week this week. West Virginia is near the top of the nation when it comes to kids and their vaccines. Sixteen cases of measles were confirmed among Amish in the Knox County area of north-central Ohio. The Department of Health says the outbreak of the highly contagious respiratory disease began with unvaccinated travelers who returned to Ohio after visiting the Philippines. Two hundred cases of the mumps were recently reported in Ohio. A recent measles epidemic there caused at least 20,000 illnesses. The immunization number for children entering kindergarten is at 96 percent but for the newborn to 4-year-old population the rate drops to 61 percent. The national average is 68 percent. Some children are left unimmunized (as babies) and susceptible to some very preventable diseases. Pediatricians are seeing more and more cases of the measles, mumps and pertussis or whooping cough. Currently there are 14 serious childhood vaccine-preventable diseases: Diphtheria, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Influenza, Measles, Rotavirus, Haemophilus Influenza type B, Tetanus, Mumps, Pertussis, Pneumococcal Polio, Rubella and Chickenpox.

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