Childhood immunizations in the United States

Vaccines provide immunity to children before exposure to potentially serious infectious diseases, and play a central role in preventing the spread of diseases with epidemic potential. The childhood vaccine schedule is designed specifically to deliver protection during periods of greatest vulnerability. The schedule for childhood immunizations in the United States is published and routinely updated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).. Following the introduction of routine childhood vaccination in the United States, reported cases of most vaccine-preventable diseases declined by more than 90%. The CDC estimates that among approximately 117 million children born in the United States between 1994 and 2023, routine childhood immunization prevented about 508 million cases of disease, 32 million hospitalizations, and more than 1.1 million premature deaths from vaccine-preventable illnesses, with the number of illnesses averted ranging from roughly 5,000 cases of tetanus to nearly 100 million cases of measles and varicella.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.