Call it one of New Jersey’s medical mysteries. One of the most affluent states in the country, home to more than a few giants of the pharmaceutical industry, New Jersey also has one of the lowest immunization rates in the nation for babies and toddlers. The state ranked 42nd last year — and 45th in 2008 — in a telephone survey of parents and pediatricians by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Jersey’s 64 percent rate for giving infants and toddlers recommended shots for polio, hepatitis B, mumps, measles and rubella and other diseases last year was well below the national average of nearly 71 percent, and the lowest in the Northeast. In Pennsylvania, 72 percent of infants and toddlers got their shots. Nearly 71 percent got them in New York City.
Nobody knows for sure why New Jersey’s vaccination rate has slipped so low, but public health professionals and pediatricians say they’ve seen it building for several years.
In low-income and immigrant communities, many lack health insurance, transportation to the doctor’s office, or struggle to understand the complex schedule of up to 28 shots recommended by the time a child is two-and-a-half years old. Read more in Star Ledger.