*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 1992.02.07 : San Diego Childhood Immunization Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 245-6343 February 7, 1992 SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- President Bush today joined with federal, state and local health officials to unveil the San Diego early childhood immunization plan -- the fifth of six plans developed in key areas of the United States to address under- immunization of America's youngest and most vulnerable citizens. The goal of each plan is to ensure at least 90 percent of children under 2 are fully immunized by the year 2000. HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., said, "With health care costs stretched to the limit, we can't afford NOT to immunize our youngest children. For every $1 spent on measles, mumps and rubella immunization, for example, $14 in costs to society are saved." Meeting with San Diego officials were HHS Assistant Secretary for Health James Mason, M.D., who heads the Public Health Service; Surgeon General Antonia C. Novello, M.D.; and William L. Roper, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease Control. Under-immunization of the nation's 2-year-olds gained widespread attention with the largest reported measles outbreak in the nation in 20 years -- with more than 27,600 cases and 89 deaths reported in 1990. The immunization plan for the San Diego area is its contribution to the nationwide effort to provide more innovative and effective means for vaccinating children who are not now being reached. President Bush proclaimed early childhood immunization a priority for his administration in a Rose Garden ceremony before Congressional leaders and immunization experts on June 13. At that time, he called on Secretary Sullivan and leading public health officials to travel to Dallas, Phoenix, Rapid City (South Dakota), Detroit, San Diego and Philadelphia to see what could be done by local health officials to get "kids (vaccinated) at an earlier age...To solve the problem of late immunization, we've got to assault it from all angles and levels with public health efforts, with creative partnerships between the nonprofit and the private sectors, with conscientious action on the part of parents, teachers and citizens." In response to the call to action, the San Diego County plan represents a collaborative effort of more than 50 major health, social, religious, business, civic agencies/organizations in the region. Unique to San Diego, representatives from the military and health maintenance organizations such as Southern California Kaiser Permanente and Aetna Health Plans were actively involved in the planning process. A special Centers for Disease Control retrospective survey conducted in early December 1991 among San Diego County school children indicated that 48 percent of the youngsters studied were current on recommended immunizations by the age of two years--the highest for a large metropolitan area to date but still far from the 90 percent goal. Of the 186 kindergarten youngsters participating in a 1990 statewide retrospective survey conducted by the State of California Department of Health Services, only 41.4 percent had been fully immunized by 2 years. Of the 985 measles cases occurring in the county in 1990, 45 percent (433) occurred in youngsters less than four years of age. The measles incidence among Hispanic and African-American preschool-age children was five and three times that among whites, respectively. All three of the measles deaths that occurred were among Hispanic children. Some of the most significant commitments of the plan include innovative solutions in service delivery in the public/non-profit sector, through community linkages and in the private sector. For example: o Over 25 major health care agencies, many with multiple sites, have committed to adopting a comprehensive "no barriers" immunization service delivery policy; o County Health Services will double the number of immunization clinics held at satellite locations, if funding becomes available, and provide a full-time, bilingual immunization team; o Governmental and community agencies have committed to obtaining support for legislation requiring youngsters entering family day care to be fully immunized, and requiring primary care insurance to reimburse for the cost of childhood immunizations; o Immunization assessment information will be added to WIC forms statewide to screen the high-risk clients of this program; o The County Department of Social Services' welfare offices, as well as many community organizations, will provide space for on-site immunization services; o County Health Services will provide a mobile van to improve immunization services; o A major health maintenance organization, Southern California Kaiser Permanente, will establish special immunization clinics for non-members at all of its 17 sites; o The UCSD Medical Center will institute a five-day-a-week immunization service in its pediatric clinic and provide immunizations to preschoolers seen in its emergency room; o Aetna Foundation has provided $50,000 to San Diego officials to implement the plan and additionally will donate health education resources and printing support for locally developed materials. Community outreach and education are not overlooked in the plan, for instance: o Large and small regional employers, such as General Dynamics-Convair Division, have committed to developing and implementing an ongoing system to provide all employees with childhood immunization information; o Pending available resources, a resource center is to be established within County Health Services to provide language-appropriate materials to the county's many diverse cultures and to provide consistent and current immunization materials targeting migrant workers, immigrants, pregnant and parenting teens, and parents of youngsters in child care facilities and schools. A community-based San Diego County advisory council with a broad base of expertise will be established to guide the implementation and ongoing activities outlined in the plan. Dr. Sullivan complimented the San Diego County Health Department on an "outstanding plan" for immunizing children age 2 and younger. "When implemented," Secretary Sullivan said, "the plan will ensure that our most vulnerable, younger children are protected against eight preventable diseases which can cripple, impair and kill--diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis or whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and Haemophilus influenzae type b which causes bacterial meningitis." The San Diego County effort fits into the ongoing national immunization initiative, Dr. Sullivan said. o The federal immunization budget has more than tripled in the past four years, growing from $98.2 million in FY '88 to $297 million in FY '92. o The San Diego early childhood immunization plan is the fifth of six local area plans being developed around the country-- Dallas, Maricopa County (Phoenix), South Dakota (Rapid City) and Detroit have completed their plans; and Philadelphia is in final stages of development. These areas are representative of others around the nation and the immunization problems they face. The plans, when completed, will be used to guide approximately 80 immunization project areas and large cities as they develop their plans in *This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 1992. The aim is to have local plans in place, nationwide, to address the under-immunization needs of individual communities. o The ongoing national Immunization Initiative consists of several key actions to address under-immunization problems. For example: -- development of new "Standards for Immunization Practices" to be adopted by all public and private vaccine providers in America; -- sponsorship of 16 new intervention and assessment demonstration projects in 14 different cities and states to test the effectiveness of new approaches to raising immunization levels; -- formation of an Immunization Education and Action Committee in the Healthy Mothers-Healthy Babies Coalition specifically to address infant immunization; -- formation of a federal interagency coordinating committee to unite all key federal partners with a role in immunization. Getting children immunized in order for them to go to school is not enough, Dr. Mason said: "We as a nation do a great job of getting our kids immunized by the time they go to school -- partly because many school systems require it. But the outbreak of measles shows our kids are vulnerable to fast-moving, potentially crippling epidemics because we are not reaching our children at the appropriate times -- starting at 2 months and at specific times during the first 2 years of life." ###