State sticking to plan

Oklahoma's immunization rate for recommended childhood vaccines exceeds the national rate, data released Thursday from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

By the numbers

•Nationally, childhood immunization rates remain at near-record levels, the CDC reported.

•According to the agency's National Immunization Survey, 77 percent of U.S. children ages 19 to 35 months have received the recommended series of vaccines — largely unchanged from 2005.

•Results show that 80.4 percent of Oklahoma children ages 19 months through 35 months of age were fully immunized against 10 deadly and devastating diseases, including polio and hepatitis B.

•Oklahoma's immunization ranking for children in that age group has improved from 44th in the nation in 2005 to 25th in the nation in 2006, according to the state Health Department.

"We believe the main reasons for the improvements are related to increased emphasis for vaccination by state doctors' offices, use of the simplified OK BY ONE immunization schedule, and outreach efforts of health department immunization workers,” state Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Crutcher said in a news release. "We are extremely pleased and proud to see an improved rate. When the rates were first measured in Oklahoma in 1993, only 65 percent of Oklahoma children were fully immunized, so we have increased substantially in the last 17 years.”

"This is extremely good news,” Dr. Melinda Wharton, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a news release. "We are continuing to protect more young children and adolescents than ever before from vaccine-preventable diseases that can cause serious illness or death, and for which we often have no effective medical treatments.”

Pediatrician Ed Legako said a major reason immunization rates have increased in Oklahoma is a new computerized record-keeping system started by the Health Department.

The system tracks schoolchildren's immunization records when they move from one town to another or from one school district to another.

"We can easily know what the children need or if they are deficient" in their immunizations, said Legako, a Lawton physician for more than 26 years.

The registry, the Oklahoma State Immunizations Information System, receives funds from the federal Vaccines for Children program.

Also, increases in Medicaid reimbursements have more state doctors treating poor and disadvantaged Oklahoma families. Because of that, more Medicaid-eligible families "are taking their children to a doctor instead of (to) a hospital emergency room for needed vaccinations,” Legako said.

"Immunizations are at the core of what we do,” Legako said. "We're in the business of preventive medicine.”

He also credits schools and day care centers for being extra vigilant in requiring updated immunization records for admission and attendance.

Dr. Don Wilber, a Midwest City pediatrician, said immunizations are the &quo