Contact:           Terry Hastings  
                                                                    All Kids Count  
                                                                    404-687-5611 

IMMUNIZATION REGISTRIES NEED POLITICAL FINANCIAL BACKING

ATLANTA, May 2, 2000 - Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Mrs. Betty Bumpers, wife of former Senator Dale Bumpers, joined with health experts yesterday to urge Congress to find the political will and financial backing for development of immunization registries that can ensure every child is immunized on time by age 2.

Immunization registries, confidential, computerized information systems that contain information on the shots children receive, are proven tools for sustaining the high immunization rates that this country now enjoys.  This is not an easy task: If over 11,000 children are born every day, and each child needs 18-22 shots by age 2, that means over 250,000 shots need to be tracked each day. Families move and change doctors and health plans, making it increasingly difficult to keep track of immunization records. 

As William H. Foege, MD, MPH, senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and world-renowned immunization policy expert, said, “Vaccines do no good if they are not used. Creating a system to use them properly is as important as developing vaccines in the first place. One is the product of good science; the other is the product of good governance.”

Recent data show that immunization registries not only can increase or sustain high immunization rates, but they also can save twice what they cost. A fully operational system of immunization registries could annually eliminate approximately $250 million in costs incurred in this country by making accurate, up-to-date immunization information available to health care professionals and schools.  The cost to complete and maintain immunization registries is approximately $5 per child per year, for all children up to age 6, or $125 million annually.

Since 1992, over $200 million has been invested in the development of registries by federal, state and local governments, and private foundations. Approximately $50 million annually is now being spent on registries. Of that 42% is from federal funding for state immunization programs (federal section 317 funding), while 58% is from states/counties/cities, HCFA/Medicaid, health plans, foundations and fee-for-service.  Approximately $65 million annually is needed to complete and maintain community- and state-based immunization registries. The 1999 National Vaccine Advisory Committee report on immunization registries called for a five-year grant program to fund registries.

Foege and other experts spoke at a legislative briefing in Washington, D.C., to inform members of Congress about registries. Hosted by Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Bumpers, co-founders of Every Child By Two, the briefing was co-sponsored by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mike Enzi (UT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and James Jeffords (R-VT); and Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA); Gene Green (D-TX); and James Greenwood (R-PA).

Leading health organizations, health care professional organizations and education organizations co-sponsored the briefing, including All Kids Count, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Health Plans, American Immunization Registry Association, American Medical Association, American Osteopathic Association, American School Health Association, American Public Health Association, Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, Center for Health Information Management, American Public Health Association, Children’s Defense Fund, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, Every Child By Two, Informed Parents Against Vaccine Associated Paralytic Polio, Inter-American College of Physicians, National Assembly of School-based Health Care, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners, National Association of County and City Health Officials, National Association of Community Health Centers, National Association of School Nurses, National Medical Association, National School Boards Association and Partnership for Prevention.

Walter Orenstein, MD, director of the National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that there is now a registry in every state, although not all are fully operational. He described the benefits they offer beyond sustaining immunization rates, including saving time for doctors and nurses, increasing vaccine safety, and assisting with the development of national immunization policy recommendations. Gregory Gilmet, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Medica Health Plans, Minneapolis, chastised health care policymakers for this country’s  “woefully inadequate” vaccine delivery system.

Immunization registries allow nurses like Margaret McChesney, RN, of Phoenix, Ariz., to concentrate on delivery of services of families. She said that the immunization registry in Arizona has allowed her to have fast access to accurate information that helps her do a better job as a public health nurse working to make sure children in day care programs and schools have all of their shots.  Immunization rates for the children she serves increased from 40% to 93% in less than a year once she had access to the state immunization registry. By identifying under-immunized children and administering missing shots, cases of measles, pertussis and varicella at the day care programs and schools she serves were reduced to zero, despite county-wide outbreaks of those diseases during the same timeframe.   

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