Routine childhood vaccinations have been instrumental in preventing hundreds of millions of illnesses, tens of millions of hospitalizations, and over 1 million deaths among individuals born between 1994 and 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A new report, released by the CDC on Thursday, delved into the advantages of routine childhood immunizations in the United States via the CDC’s Vaccines for Children Program, implemented in 1994. The report also highlighted the substantial cost savings realized through these vaccinations.
The researchers, from the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, conducted an analysis of the health benefits and economic impact of routine immunizations among children in the United States born between 1994 and last year.
The measles, mumps, and rubella virus vaccine, depicted at the International Community Health Services clinic in Seattle, has prevented millions of hospitalizations among children born from 1994 to 2023.
Nine vaccines were considered in the research: diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis or DTaP; Haemophilus influenzae type b or Hib; poliovirus; measles, mumps, and rubella; hepatitis B; varicella; hepatitis A; pneumococcal conjugate; and rotavirus. Some other common vaccines, such as flu, COVID-19, and RSV immunizations, were excluded from the analysis.
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The researchers estimated the number of vaccinated children using data from National Immunization Surveys and school vaccination surveys. Disease cases and deaths were projected using data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
It was discovered that out of approximately 117 million children born from 1994 to 2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented around 508 million cases of illness throughout the children’s lives, 32 million hospitalizations, and roughly 1.13 million deaths.
The total number of illnesses prevented in the study varied from about 5,000 cases for tetanus to approximately 100 million for measles and varicella.
The highest cumulative number of hospitalizations and deaths prevented was roughly 13.2 million hospitalizations for measles and about 752,800 deaths for diphtheria, as noted by the researchers.
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