In yet another sign that childhood vaccinations can’t be taken for granted, new government data shows that a record number of kindergartners were exempted from the required shots during the last school year.

That leaves more than 125,000 new students without the protection of at least one childhood vaccine, even as measles vaccination rates among kindergartners have already fallen below a federal target for four years running, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Meanwhile, by July of this year U.S. measles cases were already triple that of all of 2023.

“Public health officials are concerned about decreased vaccination rates in kindergarteners. Childhood vaccines are safe and effective and have made a profound difference in reducing suffering and death from what were once dreaded infectious diseases,” Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told CNN.

Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, echoed that worry.

“The broader story is that vaccination coverage decreased in 35 states, and 14 states out of those 35 had at least one full percentage point drop,” Freeman told CNN. “What that translates to is about 280,000 students without proof of complete vaccinations.”

“But the more you consider local communities and neighborhoods, the more the risk can be different, because you see these larger pockets of vaccine-hesitant communities,” she said. “We often see congregations of the same people together in these communities, and disease can spread rapidly because they all have similar beliefs.”

How big is the dip in measles vaccination rates?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has set a goal that at least 95% of children in kindergarten get two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, a threshhold that helps prevent outbreaks of the highly contagious disease.

However, coverage dipped during the pandemic and it hasn’t rebounded. The measles vaccination rate fell again last year, to 92.7% coverage for kindergartners in the 2023-24 school year, the CDC data showed.

Rates for other state-mandated vaccinations — including diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis, known as DTaP, and polio — also dropped.

Last school year, vaccine exemptions reached the highest level ever reported, with roughly 3.3% of kindergartners getting an exemption for one or more required vaccines. The vast majority were non-medical exemptions, the data showed.

Not surprisingly, there have already been outbreaks this year of infectious diseases in pockets of communities with low vaccination rates, Freeman said.

There was a measles outbreak last March in Chicago, where at least 57 cases were linked to a migrant shelter, along with a February outbreak at an elementary school in Florida’s Broward County.

Measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause serious health consequences or death, especially for young and unvaccinated children.

General symptoms may include fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes and a rash of red spots. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people will be hospitalized, according to the CDC. Roughly 1 in every 20 children will develop pneumonia, and others may develop a dangerous swelling in the brain called encephalitis. Up to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles may die from respiratory and neurological complications.

“While it’s encouraging to know that more than 9 out of every 10 children ARE receiving their recommended vaccines, the seemingly small decreases [from 93.1% MMR vaccine coverage to 92.7% coverage, for example] can have an outsized negative impact,” Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, a nonprofit group, told CNN. “These data points matter because each drop in coverage places all our children at increasing risk of serious infectious diseases that were once a thing of the past.”

More information

The World Health Organization has more on the measles.

SOURCES: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, Oct. 3, 2024; CNN

Source: HealthDay