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CDC: VFC program continues to protect millions of children from disease
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CDC estimates that more than 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 early deaths among children born during the last 20 years will be prevented because of vaccinations, according to this week's MMWR.
The Vaccines for Children (VFC) program was launched in 1994 in direct response to a measles resurgence in the United States that caused more than 100 deaths. The VFC program provides vaccines to children whose parents or caregivers might be unable to afford them.
The CDC used data on immunization coverage from the National Immunization Survey and previous cost-benefit models to estimate illnesses, hospitalization and premature deaths prevented and costs saved for all routine childhood vaccination during 1994-2013.
Since implementation of the program provided vaccines to prevent nine disease to 14 diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b disease, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A, pneumococcal disease, influenza and rotavirus vaccine.
“As a result diseases such as measles and Haemophilus influenzae type b, are no longer common in the United States,” CDC Director, Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said during a telebriefing. “When I was a medical resident it was very common to see children who were at risk of death from infections that are now virtually never seen in our hospitals.”
Thomas Frieden
Overall, CDC estimates that the VFC program has resulted in $295 billion in direct costs and $1.38 trillion in total societal costs since its implementation.
“This is an enormous impact,” Frieden said. “It demonstrates why the VFC program is one of our country’s most successful public-private partnerships to improve the health of our children and our country.”
Despite the program’s success, an increase in US measles cases have been reported in recent years. As of April 18, 2014, 129 cases of measles have been reported the United States as part of 13 separate outbreaks. This is the most number of cases reported in the United States in the first 4 months of the year since 1996. Of those cases, 34 brought measles into the United States following measles exposure in other countries.
“Today’s measles outbreaks are too often the result of people opting out,” Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service and Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Distress, Anne Schuchat, MD, said. “Most of the people, or 84% of the US cases that are reported to have measles this year so far were not vaccinated or didn’t know their vaccination status. Of the unvaccinated US residents 68% had personal belief exemptions or essentially opted out of being vaccinated.”
Anne Schuchat
According to this week’s MMWR, from Jan. 1 to April 18, 2014, there have been 58 confirmed cases of measles in California alone. Most cases occurred in patients aged 20 years or older (55%), followed by those aged 5 to 19 years (29%), 1 to 4 years (10%), and younger than 12 months (5%). No deaths have been reported this year.
The highest number of measles cases in the United States since 1996 was reported in 2011 (n=220). However, CDC estimated that 71 million cases of measles would have occurred in children born during the last 20 years without immunization.
“While it’s always disappointing to report outbreaks of any diseases, today’s MMWR articles together provide perspective and underscore how hugely successful our nation’s immunization program has been in protecting the health of our children and communities,” Schuchat said. “We’re very grateful to the health care practitioners who are real immunization champions going above and beyond every day to keep people healthy and safe.”
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Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.