Complete Vaccination Coverage Down in Kindergarteners for 2023-24 School Year
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Oct. 18, 2024 -- During the 2023-2024 school year, fewer U.S. kindergarteners had complete vaccinations than in prior years, according to a study published in the Oct. 17 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Ranee Seither, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues used data reported by 49 states and the District of Columbia for the 2023-2024 school year to estimate national and state levels of complete vaccination with required doses of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR), diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP), poliovirus vaccine (polio), and varicella vaccine (VAR), as well as exemptions from vaccination.
The researchers found that compared with approximated national coverage levels across all reported vaccines for the 2019-2020 (95 percent) and 2022-2023 (93 percent) school years, coverage dropped for the 2023-2024 school year, ranging from 92.3 percent for DTaP to 92.7 percent for MMR. Compared with the 2022-2023 (3.0 percent) and 2021-2022 school years (2.6 percent), exemptions increased to 3.3 percent. In 35, 32, 33, and 36 jurisdictions, coverage with MMR, DTaP, polio, and VAR decreased, respectively, compared with the 2022-2023 school year. In 41 jurisdictions, exemptions increased, with 14 jurisdictions reporting that more than 5 percent of kindergartners had an exemption from one or more vaccine.
“Efforts by health departments, schools, and providers are needed to ensure that students begin school fully vaccinated,” the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted October 2024
Read this next
Helping Others Linked to Higher Level of Cognitive Function
THURSDAY, Aug. 21, 2025 -- Helping others, both via formal volunteering and informal helping, is associated with higher levels of cognitive function and slower cognitive decline...
TAR-200 Monotherapy Promising for BCG-Unresponsive Bladder Cancer
THURSDAY, Aug. 21, 2025 -- For patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), an intravesical...
Work-Related Income Drops for Parents of Children Diagnosed With Type 1 Diabetes
THURSDAY, Aug. 21, 2025 -- Work-related income decreases sharply for mothers and fathers of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, with similar effects across sociodemographic...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.