National Infant Immunization Week highlights need for parental vigilance.

2003 MAY 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Today - and every day - more than 11,000 babies will be born in the United States.

Each of these youngsters will require 16-20 immunizations during the first two years of life to ensure that they are protected against a wide range of childhood diseases.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designated April 13-20, 2003, as National Infant Immunization Week. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is one organization that supported the CDC's efforts by reminding its members - and its communities - of the urgent need to carefully track their children's immunization schedules.

"Ironically, the enormous success of childhood vaccination programs creates a problem of its own," said Samuel Nussbaum, MD, of Anthem. "Because we have done such a good job of virtually eradicating many previously common childhood diseases, we risk growing complacent. It's important to understand that immunization is the best way to protect children against diseases that many parents - and even physicians - have never seen in their lifetimes."

While nationally, vaccination rates for children younger than two years old are at record or near-record highs, the CDC estimates than more than 900,000 children in the United States still are not adequately immunized. And any drop in vaccination coverage levels creates the possibility of the resurgence of a disease. For example, in 1989, the United States suffered a measles epidemic that resulted in 55,000 cases of measles, 11,000 hospitalizations, and 120 deaths between 1989 and 1991 - all from a disease most believed had been completely eradicated.