Issue Briefs
Title
Exposure and Vulnerability of California Kindergarteners to Intentionally Unvaccinated Children
Date of this Version
10-24-2012
Abstract
Widespread vaccination coverage among children is responsible for reducing or eliminating 14 serious childhood diseases in the United States. Despite this success, some parents remain concerned about the health effects of vaccines, and choose to keep their children unvaccinated. When population rates of vaccinations remain high enough, even unvaccinated children are protected because everyone around them is immune (so-called “herd immunity”). But clusters of unvaccinated children may threaten herd immunity and lead to increasing outbreaks of preventable diseases. This Issue Brief summarizes a new study that investigates the extent of such clustering, and quantifies the exposure of all California kindergartners to their intentionally unvaccinated schoolmates.
Document Type
Brief
Volume
18
Number
1
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords
health behavior & communication, disease prevention/health promotion
View On LDI Website
http://ldi.upenn.edu/policy/issue-briefs/2012/10/24/exposure-and-vulnerability-of-california-kindergarteners-to-intentionally-unvaccinated-children
Included in
Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Health Services Administration Commons, Health Services Research Commons
Date Posted: 09 December 2016