Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210220
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a report made public Tuesday, the panel, of the Institute of Medicine, said fewer than 70 percent of the country's 2-year-olds have all their recommended inoculations because of the failure of doctors, parents and health agencies to make sure children are protected.
``We know that underimmunized children are experiencing illnesses that could be avoided and that some may be suffering severe consequences, even death,'' Dr. Lorraine V. Klerman of the University of Alabama, chairwoman of the panel that wrote the report, said at a briefing in Washington.
Families are confronted with various barriers that keep youngsters from getting the preventive care they need, she said.
These include lack of access to health care, lack of insurance that covers vaccinations and outmoded practices at clinics and doctors' offices that make it difficult to keep children on schedule for the many inoculations they need in early life.
The report praised President Clinton's Childhood Immunization Initiative, for which Congress appropriated more than $800 million this year to provide free vaccines for the uninsured and those on Medicaid, as well as education programs and efforts to improve the availability of inoculations.
But the report added that ``removing the financial barriers will not, by itself, achieve full immunization of preschool children.''
In a Rose Garden ceremony intended to focus attention on the situation, Clinton said Wednesday that the United States badly trails most of the world in immunizing children.
Clinton noted that the problem is especially serious in some inner-city and rural areas and called the illnesses resulting from this failure ``a health disaster and a human tragedy.''
by CNB