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April 25, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS 

"N.M. May Jam 20 Shots Into Babies' First Year"

Albuquerque Journal (www.abqjournal.com) (04/24/03) P. A1; Jadrnak, Jackie

With new interest in moving the state up from its ranking as last in the United States in child immunizations, New Mexico is considering asking parents to inoculate their children as many as 20 times before they reach one year of age.  New Mexico recently found that just 61.2 percent of its two-year-old children have received all of the immunizations recommended by health agencies, far below the national average of 73.1 percent of two-year-olds.  Some may assume that the state's mainly rural lifestyle and relative poverty could be the cause of such a low immunization rate, but Dr. Gary Simpson, medical director for infectious diseases in New Mexico's Department of Health, says that the neighboring nation of Mexico is much poorer and more rural, yet has an immunization rate of 90 percent.  The reasoning behind the accelerated vaccination schedule during the first year of life is that it would make the task of providing vaccine shots to children easier for parents and doctors, as the number of visits to a pediatrician would be reduced.

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