Fact Sheet - Immunization

• Vaccines are cost-effective. More than $13 are saved for every $1 spent on measles/mumps/rubella vaccine; more than $29 are saved for every $1 spent on diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccine; and more than $6 are saved for every $1 spent on polio vaccine. More than $5 are saved for every $1 spent on varicella vaccine.

 

• A major cause of the 1991 measles epidemic in New Jersey was the failure to vaccinate children on time at 12 to 15 months of age. Of preschool-aged children aged 12 months to 5 years old contracting measles, 70% were not vaccinated.

 

• Low levels of disease in the U.S. are associated with record high levels of immunization of preschool children. In 2004 approximately 84.1% of New Jersey's 2 year olds received the basic recommended series of 4 doses of diptheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccine, 3 doses of polio vaccine, and 1 dose of measles/mumps vaccine. Despite this success, many of New Jersey's toddlers lack 1 or more doses of this series.

• Up through the early 1920s, diphtheria was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases in the United States, killing over 10,000 people every year. Vaccinating children against diphtheria began in the 1930s and 1940s. As a result, the disease started disappearing. Today, it is rare for a doctor even to see a case of diphtheria, much less have a child die from it.

• In 1962, the year before the measles vaccine was introduced, almost 500,000 cases of measles were reported in the U.S. Ten years after the U.S. started vaccinating there were about 32,000 cases, and 10 years after that there were fewer than 2,000. In 1998 and 1999, only about 100 measles cases were reported each year.

• There are 12 potentially serious diseases that vaccines protect against: measles, mumps, rubella (German Measles), diphtheria, tetanus (lockjaw), pertussis (whooping cough), polio, haemphillus influenzae, type b (Hib Disease), hepatitis B, varicella (chickenpox), hepatitis A, and pneumococcal disease. At least 1 shot is needed for each of these diseases, and for some of them several doses are required for the best protection.

• Before vaccines were widely used, 10,000 children were paralyzed by polio and 20,000 newborns were affected by rubella (birth defects, including mental retardation) each year in the U.S. Fifteen thousand children affected by haemophilus influenzae type b had meningitis, leaving many with permanent brain damage; and 8,000 children, most under 1 year of age, died as a result of pertussis (whooping cough). Four million children came down with measles, killing 3,000. Diptheria was the most common cause of death in school-aged children.

• Polio virus causes acute paralysis that can lead to permanent physical disability and even death. Before polio vaccine was available, 13,000 to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported each year in the United States. These annual epidemics of polio often left thousands of victims (mostly children) in braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and iron lungs.

• In 1999, as a result of global immunization efforts to eradicate the disease, there were about 2,883 documented cases of polio in the world. In 1994, wild polio virus was imported to Canada from India, but high vaccination levels prevented it from spreading in the population.

 

• Two enhanced forms of inactivated poliovirus vaccine are currently licensed in the United States, but only 1 vaccine (IPOL, Aventis Pasteur) is actually distributed. This vaccine contains all 3 serotypes of polio vaccine virus. The viruses are grown in a type of monkey kidney tissue culture (Vero cell line) and inactivated with formaldehyde. The vaccine contains 2-phenoxyethanol as a preservative, and trace amounts of neomycin, streptomycin, and polymyxin B. It is supplied in a single dose prefilled syringe, and should be administered by either subcutaneous or intramuscular injection.

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