State makes gains in child immunization rate

BOISE – Parents are remembering to bring their children in for the often-skipped final immunization shot, health workers say, boosting immunization rates in Idaho by 9 percent last year.

The increase meant that 78 percent of children between 19 and 35 months old were fully immunized in 2003, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Ross Mason said Friday.

Even with the increase, Idaho is still 1 percent lower than the national average. But state numbers are higher than those in Utah, Washington and Oregon.

“Our immunization rates for the first set of shots are as high or higher than most states,” Mason said. “But when it really falls down for all the states is the last set of shots, the fourth set of diphtheria shots.”

The problem, Mason said, is that the fourth and final set of immunization shots – usually set for between the ages of 19 and 35 months – is outside the normal schedule of well-baby doctor visits.

“It’s not an issue of a parent being reluctant to immunize their kids. It’s just that you get so used to doing those shots as part of the well-baby routine that when that ends, it’s easy to forget,” Mason said. “It’s even more difficult for a state like Idaho because we’re rural, and health care is a little more difficult to access than in other states.”

Idaho has spent the past decade pushing to get more parents to immunize their children. Former Gov. Phil Batt led the charge, sending notes to the parents of newborns offering congratulations and a reminder that children should be immunized. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne took the next steps, sending the note along with a refrigerator magnet featuring the immunization schedule and creating an immunization registry.

The state health department has also taken its own initiatives, adding new efforts to reach parents every year, said Maggi Alsager, the nursing supervisor and immunization coordinator for the North Central District Health Department in Lewiston.

“We work very closely with the local physicians and pediatricians, because a key problem is missed opportunities. If a child goes into a doctor’s office because he has a cold, and could be immunized at the same time, the doctor should do it then and not just tell the parent to come back later for immunizations.”

The district doesn’t just talk to professionals, Alsager said.

“It’s continuous education of the public and new moms and even grandparents. When we do flu clinics in the fall for seniors, we’re asking them if their grandkids are immunized,” she said.

Banks let the department post immunization messages on local electronic billboards a few times a year, she said, and the health offices stay open later so parents can bring kids in after work.

“All of our initiatives have evolved over the past few years, as we talk to parents and ask them why they didn’t bring their kids in. Not all of them work – we brought immunization vans up to Wal-Mart for a while, and that doesn’t work – but enough of them are successful that it’s making a difference,” Alsager said.

The health department’s advertising campaign has helped boost immunization numbers as well, Mason said.

Now, he said, the challenge will be to keep up the pace.

“The problem is you can’t rest on your laurels. People who are parents for the first time probably didn’t pay much attention to the earlier campaigns,” Mason said.