FRIDAY, Sept. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Adolescent vaccine coverage increased in 2008 versus 2007, but further monitoring is needed to track the demographic factors affecting differences in coverage, according to a study in the Sept. 18 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Shannon Stokley and colleagues at the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in Atlanta analyzed data from the 2008 National Immunization Survey-Teen, which provided coverage data for 50 states, as well as some local areas.
There was considerable variation of coverage from state to state as well as between different racial/ethnic groups and according to poverty status, the researchers found. National coverage for the three most recently recommended vaccinations increased since 2007, from 32.4 to 41.8 percent for the meningococcal conjugate vaccine; from 30.4 to 40.8 percent for the tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis vaccine; and from 25.1 to 37.2 percent for at least one dose of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine, the investigators note.
"For the first time, the Healthy People 2010 target of 90 percent coverage among adolescents aged 13 to 15 years was met for measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B," the authors write. "Public health agencies should continue annual monitoring of adolescent vaccination coverage levels to identify trends and differences by geographic area, race/ethnicity, and poverty status."
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