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WPRO News and the Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Health officials say Rhode Island’s immunization rates for children and teenagers are among the highest in the country.
The state Health Department said Tuesday the rate for children between 19 and 35 months for the series that protects against 11 diseases – including measles, mumps and rubella – was 82 percent, the highest in the U.S.
Rates for children in the same age group for varicella and hepatitis B were both greater than 96 percent, also the country’s highest.
For adolescents, rates for the vaccines against chicken pox, hepatitis B, tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, measles, mumps and rubella were above 92 percent, well above the national averages.
The data is from the National Immunization Survey. It was released earlier this month by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
