In 2018, over 10,000 Colorado children were treated for vaccine-preventable diseases in a hospital or emergency department, resulting in $59 million in healthcare charges. Also in 2018, Colorado ranked last among U.S. states for kindergarten MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination at 87.4% and second-to-last for DTAP vaccination at 90.3%. That’s according to an independent report released today by Children’s Hospital Colorado (Children’s Colorado) and Immunize Colorado. The Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Report also finds that nearly 60% of hospitalizations resulting from vaccine-preventable diseases were among children less than five years old.
Prepared by pediatricians and researchers from the Department of Epidemiology at Children’s Colorado, the report provides an analysis of the level of vaccine protection in Colorado’s children based on the most recent National Immunization Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Colorado Hospital Association inpatient and emergency department data. The March installment of the 2020 Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Report examines 2018 data on vaccine-preventable diseases in Colorado, highlights the latest updates involving measles cases in our state, and emphasizes the immense coordinated public health effort required to respond to cases of vaccine-preventable disease. The report concludes that significant gaps in vaccine protection exist for our state’s children.