Abstract
Although the vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is recommended for all children 24-60 months of age and high risk children 18-23 months of age, there is little information about the extent to which these recommendations have been implimented. To assess the use of the vaccine we randomly selected from the hospital logs 202 (2.5%) of the 8.026 children who were born at Yale-New Haven Hospital and were between 18 and 36 months of age on 2/28/86. Parents of the children were interviewed and their physicians were contacted to ascertain whether the child had received the vaccine. After children were excluded because of: inability to locate them (12%), refusal to participate (4%), having moved out of state (2%), death (2%), prior Hib disease (1%) and refusal of the physician to participate (1%), 157 children (78%) were enrolled in the study. Overall, 75 children (48%) had received the vaccine. The vaccine had been received by 2 of 28 children (7%) between 18 and 23 months of age and by 73 of 129 children (57%) between 24 and 36 months of age.
Among children whose day care status was known, 17/33 (52%) who attended group day care and 35/77 (45%) who did not attend group day care had received the vaccine. Among children between 24 and 36 months of age, 55/87 (63%) who attended private physicians, 14/28 (50%) who attended prepaid health maintenance organizations, but only 4/14 (29%) who attended public clinics (P<0.05) had received the vaccine. Although widespread implimentation of recommendations for universal immunization had begun 10 months after licensure of the Hib vaccine, rates of immunization were lower among indigent patients who are at increased risk of disease.
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Shapiro, E., Lichtman, J., Petersen, L. et al. USE OF HAEMOPHILUS VACCINE IN CONNECTICUT. Pediatr Res 21 (Suppl 4), 287 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00719
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00719