The number of Idaho children not receiving immunizations has climbed steadily for several years. That’s according to Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare. Idaho requires children be vaccinated against more than twenty diseases before they enter school. But parents can exempt their children.
Tom Shanahan “Idaho’s exemption rate is about 3.8% of children, but it’s growing and it keeps going up a small number every year.”
Tom Shanahan is with Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare. He says parents can get an exemption for three reasons; medical, religious or personal. Shanahan says by far the reason given most often is personal. The statewide growth in exemptions has gone on even while Health and Welfare and other state agencies have run campaigns to encourage immunization. Shanahan says childhood vaccination programs do work. He says they’ve virtually wiped out diseases like polio and measles in the U.S.
Tom Shanahan “But in other countries they’re still prevalent. And so they can come back very easily with any traveler. And so children who haven’t been fully immunized are vulnerable to these diseases still.”
Shanahan points to pertussis or whooping cough. He says an outbreak of that disease happens in Idaho most every year. It’s potentially fatal for young children, but Shanahan says it’s also preventable with vaccinations.