Vaccination rate still low for teens despite uptick

The number of teenagers who are getting recommended vaccines jumped as much as 15% from 2008 to 2009, but room for improvement remains, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than half of 20,399 surveyed teens had at least one dose of tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (56%) in 2009, up from 41% in 2008. Fifty-four percent had at least one dose of meningococcal conjugate vaccine, up from 42% the previous year.

For the human papillomavirus vaccine, 44% of teenage girls received at least one dose to protect against cervical cancer, up from 37% in 2008.

But just 27% received all three of the recommended doses in 2009.

Physicians can play a key role in increasing those numbers, said Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. However, teenagers are a difficult population to target, because they don't often go to their family physicians for routine checkups, and many parents aren't aware of recommended vaccines, she said.

"At this age, they don't go to the doctor as much as younger children do," Dr. Wharton said.

The only time many teens visit a doctor is to see a specialist, and many specialists don't view providing vaccines as part of their role, she said.

"For the physicians who take care of adolescents, they can be part of the solution by becoming immunizers," Dr. Wharton said. "We would like these vaccines to really be a part of strengthening preventive health for adolescents."

The vaccine findings, reported in the CDC's Aug. 20 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, come from the CDC's annual national immunization survey of teens (link).

Vaccination rates have increased steadily since the survey began in 2006, Dr. Wharton said. For example, just 11% of teens had at least one dose of the Tdap vaccine the first survey year.

Despite the increased immunizations, there is "clear room for improvement in our system's ability to reach this age group," according to a statement by Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Programs such as Vaccines for Children, a national CDC program that provides free vaccines to children who are uninsured or come from low-income families, are available for those facing financial barriers.

"Pertussis outbreaks in several states and an increase in pertussis-related infant deaths in California highlight how important it is for preteens to receive the Tdap booster," she said, referring to an outbreak detected in March.