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 May 2021
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Reducing the Risk of Vaccine Preventable Diseases During the Pandemic
Joel Blostein, MPH Vaccine-Preventable Disease Epidemiologist
In addition to the myriad direct adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is the negative effect on preventive health care, including routine immunizations for children and adults. Providing routine vaccinations at the recommended ages is critical to keeping our children and our communities healthy. The same is true for vaccinations for adults.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has suppressed many well-care visits to doctors’ offices and clinics. The result has been a worrisome decline in immunization rates, prompting concern among public health officials that Michigan communities are at increasing risk for cases and outbreaks of preventable diseases.
One disease that especially has experts worried is measles. Measles is highly contagious and in the past was a very common - and deadly - childhood illness. Millions of cases occurred in the United States each year with up to 500 measles-related deaths. Measles incidence declined dramatically following the licensure of the measles vaccine in 1963.
Between April 2020 and April 2021, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine rates among Michigan’s two-year-old children, already considered below optimal levels, dropped nearly 4 percentage points, from 84.7% to 80.9%. Rates of the full series of recommended vaccinations for two-year-old children fell from 56.0% to 54.3% in the same period.
Continue reading about vaccine preventable diseases >>
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Decline in Child Vaccination Coverage During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Michigan Care Improvement Registry, May 2016 - 2020
The vaccination status of milestone age cohorts of children at ages 1, 3, 5, 7, 16, 19, and 24 months was assessed, with each cohort including an average sample size of 9,269 for the study period years 2016–2019, and 9,539 for 2020. Up-to-date status for individual vaccines and the recommended age-based vaccine series* were assessed at a point in time in May 2020 and compared with 1-month age cohort assessments for points in time in May 2016–May 2019. The number of noninfluenza vaccine doses administered and reported to MCIR for children aged ≤18 years and aged ≤24 months also were examined during January–April 2020, compared with averages for the same period in 2018 and 2019.
Read the full article >>
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June is National #PetPreparedness Month
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Disability Inclusion and Considerations in Vaccination Centers and Operations
An ADA National Network Learning Session
Webinar
June 10th, 2021
2:30 pm
This session will discuss accessibility considerations for vaccination centers centered primarily around physical accessibility, communication access, and programmatic access including staff training and information sharing. Vaccination sites come in all sizes and this discussion will highlight mega sites, and will focus around the sites in Los Angeles, California; mobile vaccination missions through large cities and remote routes; and fixed facilities in Nevada and Washington.
Register >>
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The Guardian of Public Health is a monthly newsletter from the Bureau of EMS, Trauma and Preparedness (BETP) within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The Guardian aims to provide readers with relevant content on topics that affect the public health of Michigan's citizens and communities. |
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This publication was supported by Cooperative Agreement number 1NU90TP922062-01-00, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Bureau of EMS, Trauma & Preparedness | 1001 Terminal Rd, Lansing, MI 48906 | 517-335-8150
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