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Notice to Readers: National Infant Immunization Week --- April
13--19, 2003
National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) is April 13--19, 2003; this year's theme is "Love Them. Protect
Them. Immunize Them." This week emphasizes the importance of timely infant and childhood vaccination. Vaccination is one
of the most effective ways to protect children, especially
infants and young children, from potentially serious diseases. Because
of increased vaccination efforts in the United States, incidences of the majority of vaccine-preventable diseases have
decreased approximately 99% from peak pre-vaccine levels
(1). In 2002, a total of 37 measles cases, one diphtheria case, and no
wild poliovirus cases were reported (2,3). Approximately 11,000 babies are born each day in the United States; they
need approximately 20 doses of vaccine before age 2 years to protect them from 11 vaccine-preventable diseases
(4). Although vaccination coverage levels are high for children of preschool-age, approximately 1 million children aged 2 years
are missing >1 recommended vaccine doses
(5).
During NIIW, states and communities will sponsor activities designed to highlight the need to achieve and maintain
high childhood vaccination coverage rates. In addition, CDC will launch a new television public service announcement in English and Spanish and a Spanish-language immunization education booklet. Additional information about NIIW and childhood vaccinations is available from CDC's National Immunization Program at
http://www.cdc.gov/nip or the
National Immunization Information Hotline, telephone 800-232-2522 (English) or 800-232-0233 (Spanish).
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Health and Human Services.References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
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endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
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