ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO
Too many parents assume childhood diseases are no longer a threat. A public-education campaign must be part of Virginia's drive to immunize all children against such diseases.
YOUNG parents today likely have no memories of polio epidemics that crippled and sometimes killed children of their parents' generation. They may have no recollections of mumps or measles when they were children. They may assume these were eradicated years ago.
Not so. Many such diseases have been largely brought under control by immunizations that protect children against them. But they are still a threat - as was proved by a measles epidemic in the past decade. And, unfortunately, many children are left vulnerable to these contagious, potentially deadly illnesses because they don't receive protective immunizations they need by age 2.
In Virginia, about 30 percent of children don't. The administration of Gov. George Allen wants to find them and give them a shot in the arm.
The state's immunization drive, inspired in part by the Clinton administration and financed mostly with federal funds, will rely heavily on a computerized tracking system that health officials hope will overcome a major problem - parental neglect.
In Virginia, for instance, public-health departments offer the vaccinations for free. Even so, many parents don't get the protection for their kids. They put it off. They forget when vaccinations are due. Often, they switch private doctors without taking along immunization records - meaning a child may get no protection for some diseases or be overly vaccinated for others.
Clinton's original initiative was criticized for assuming that vaccinations' cost alone was responsible for low-immunization rates. Actually, health experts say, the bigger problem is parents' lackadaisical attention to children's immunization needs.
Tackling that, the state is offering to keep track of a child's immunization history for any parent who agrees to participate. It will alert parents when a child is late for an immunization, will keep tabs on a child's allergies to certain vaccines, and keep doctors and hospitals abreast when families relocate. (The information would be encrypted, making it virtually impossible for unauthorized individuals to snoop.)
The program can help Virginia reach the goal of immunizing all children by 2000. But it must be backed by an effective public-education campaign. A too-complacent new generation of parents must learn of immunizations' importance to their children's health.
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