A syringe containing the whooping cough vaccine sits in the waiting room at Alaska Family Care and Associates in Anchorage on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (Matt Fabion/Alaska Public Media)
Dr. Janet Shen, who has been a pediatrician in Anchorage for nearly 30 years, said she has seen more people worry about vaccinations for their children recently.
“I often hear, ‘Why do I need to get vaccinated against these diseases?'” she said. “And is it really necessary to get vaccinated?”
But she said the recent outbreak of whooping cough, or whooping cough, across the state is a bit of a wake-up call. As of last week, 286 Alaskans have reported testing positive for the highly contagious disease so far this year. In the state, 16 people were hospitalized and one infant died due to whooping cough. Nationwide, the number of infections has more than quadrupled since last year, and experts attribute the surge to lower vaccination rates.
“I think this is a good reminder that if vaccination rates decline, these diseases can rear their ugly heads again,” Shen said.
Alaska generally has low vaccination rates and has one of the lowest child pertussis vaccination rates in the country. While vaccination rates are not the only factor in the current outbreak, vaccination rates for this disease in Alaska are well below the rates recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for community-wide prevention. , about 30 to 35 percent lower, depending on the situation. age group. For example, in Alaska, 62 percent of children ages 5 to 6 have been vaccinated, and the CDC recommends 90 percent for all age groups.
Before vaccines, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood illnesses and a leading cause of child death, according to the CDC. The vaccine has reduced the number of infections by about 90%. But over the past 20 years, the number of infections has been rising again in the country.
Less than two-thirds of Alaska’s children are up to date on the whooping cough vaccine (known as DTap or TDap, which also protects against diphtheria and tetanus), said Sarah Aho, the state’s immunization program manager. He said there was.
“We have seen child rates drop significantly during the coronavirus pandemic,” Aho said. “We are starting to recover, but we are not yet at pre-pandemic levels.”
People haven’t been able to keep up with vaccinations during the pandemic, so vaccination rates are now lowest among 5- and 6-year-olds born just before the pandemic. But Aho said adult vaccination rates have rebounded significantly since the pandemic, and he expects child vaccination rates to follow a similar trend.
“Since COVID-19, coverage of TDap for adults has actually increased,” Aho said. “In 2018, it was about 45%, and now it’s 65%. So I think adults have done a very good job of staying up to date on vaccines, but 65% is still relatively low.” It’s low. It’s not up to 80% to 90%, which is considered really great.”
Reaching the 90% vaccination rate recommended by the CDC does not guarantee that Alaska will not have an outbreak or communicable disease, but it will reduce the risk. And that could reduce deaths among those most susceptible to whooping cough, such as infants and immunocompromised people.
Aho said Alaska has barriers to access beyond vaccine hesitancy.
“It’s not just people who don’t want to get vaccinated,” Aho said. “It’s also about access to vaccines, access to health care, and honestly, family time and priorities. That can look very different for families across the state.”
Sherry Font Anderson, who has been a public health nurse in Alaska for 38 years, said she sees many parents questioning the value of vaccines, as they did with chickenpox.
“For most kids, it’s a childhood disease. I had it,” Font-Anderson said. “But if you’re a kid and you get group A strep, and you end up in the hospital and you die, that’s OK.”
He said families and public health workers can afford to focus a little more on vaccinations now that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. She said she has seen vaccination rates fluctuate in her decades of work in the state. She said very low vaccination rates in the 1990s ultimately led to the creation of the Alaska Statewide Immunization Coalition.
Font-Anderson said the goal is to “bring people together to really look at our country’s vaccination rates and move forward to increase our vaccination rates and get us out of one of these lowest states.” said.
This year, Font-Anderson is part of a group that is reviving a coalition government. She said one of the coalition’s first steps is to collect more accurate data on vaccination rates and barriers to access. She hopes to have a statewide strategic plan in place by early 2025.
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