Most American kids entering kindergarten are getting their required vaccinations, a new report shows., as reported by WebMd.
Coverage for the 2013-2014 school year ranged from 95 percent for the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine to 94.7 percent for two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, and 93.3 percent for two doses of varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, the report found
Still, there was a persistent 1.8 percent of kids whose parents didn't want their children vaccinated, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers, reports WebMD.
Stokley said the rate of parents who opt out of vaccinations differ by state, from a low of 0.1 percent in Mississippi to 7.1 percent in Oregon, which continues to have the highest rate of vaccine refusal in the United States.
Parents choose not to have their children vaccinated for a variety of reasons, she said. These include not understanding the reasons vaccinations are important, fear that the vaccines aren't safe and not believing that they're needed.
"These diseases aren't common and people forget that they are actually very serious, and we need to maintain the protection so these diseases don't come back," Stokley stressed.
The report was published Oct. 17 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.