Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 2, 1992 TAG: 9201010041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
PRICES OF VACCINES GET BLAME IN INCREASE OF CHILDHOOD DISEASES
Vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, once thought to be on the verge of eradication, are in an upsurge that has public health officials and others worried."We cannot allow children to die of diseases that should never occur," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, which has held several hearings on the problem. "And we cannot afford to treat children for crippling conditions that we can prevent."
The biggest problem is not that federal funding for child immunizations has been cut as other domestic programs have, but that the money has lost its previous purchasing power.
Some of the statistics are ominous. In 1983, for example, there were 1,497 cases of measles nationwide. By 1989, the toll had reached 18,193, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a major health care philanthropy. In 1990, cases of measles reached a high of 27,786.
By the middle of 1991, the numbers had decreased to fewer than 10,000 cases - but the epidemic continues to rage in some cities. In New York City, for example, measles cases more than doubled from 1990 to 1991.
The United States ranks 56th worldwide in immunizing minority children against childhood diseases, and 17th in vaccinating all children against these illnesses, the foundation said.
All 50 states require that children be immunized before starting school, so more than 95 percent of the nation's older children have received the necessary shots. But more than 1.2 million children younger than 2 have not been vaccinated, the foundation said.
The reasons for this are complicated. Childhood vaccination programs vary among the states. States receive grants from the federal Centers for Disease Control and then draft their own childhood immunization programs. Federal funding for childhood immunization, unlike other domestic programs, has not been cut. In 1981, for example, the CDC doled out $24 million in state grants for childhood immunization. For fiscal 1992, which began Oct. 1, the amount will be $239 million.
But program costs have skyrocketed. The most serious problem is the price of the vaccines.
The lowest available cost - that is, the price charged in public clinics - of the DPT vaccine, for example, which protects against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus, has jumped from 15 cents per dose in 1981 to $6.91 in 1991. (The price of this vaccine has finally begun to stabilize from an all-time high of $8.46 in 1988.)
The problem is being attacked by several public and private approaches. The Centers for Disease Control last year began a program to identify financial and organizational barriers to the immunization of young children, and will try to design systems to overcome them.