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Number of kids getting vaccinations plummet

Posted: Aug 10, 2011 10:28 PM
Updated: Aug 11, 2011 3:45 AM


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TUCSON - New research from the University of Arizona College of Public Health shows what many doctors are calling an alarming trend with vaccines. It shows the number of kids getting vaccinated is drastically down.

The research done was actually pretty simple. They collected public data from the state health department, which was submitted by every Arizona school and day care. It showed a lot more kids using waivers to avoid the shots and researchers said the change is dramatic.

Between 2001and 2011 the research showed that at daycares alone the number of unvaccinated kids more than tripled, going from 1% to about 3.5%.

Day care workers said they couldn't believe it. Stephanie Eriksen, a teacher at Little Sprouts Childcare Center said, "Yeah I was shocked, shocked with the numbers."

Shocked, and a little nervous. Researchers said that's with good reason, which is why they said this is such a big deal.

Dr. Kacey Ernst of the University of Arizona's College of Public Health was a big part of the research. She said, "If you have a lot of people who don't have that vaccine, it can start snowballing through the community and cause transmission to be much higher."

And daycare workers know a likely starting point is in a place full of kids.

Shae Higgins is a Little Sprouts Teacher and mother of young children. She said, "When they don't get vaccinated unfortunately they're the first one to get sick and they get everyone else in daycare sick."

But not everyone agrees.

Just do a little searching online and you'll find dozens of websites bashing vaccines for just about every reason under the sun, which researchers said is the main reason for the change.

It has also sparked their next course of action; educating people on the truth behind vaccines.

Dr. Ernst said, "That's what we'd like to do, is identify schools where there are high exemption rates and see if we can gain access to schools through administrators and things like that, to see if we can talk to parents."

We put in calls to local doctors who support a parent's decision not to vaccinate their child, but we never heard back from them.

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