More kids get measles vaccine

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=feature&id=638

TOKYO — Japan began a campaign to get more kids vaccinated against the measles in 2001 because it seriously lags behind many other nations in dealing with the disease.

The campaign's slogan is called "Let's give measles vaccine to 1-year-old babies as a birthday present." Measles kills 750,000 people worldwide annually.

In Japan about 100,000 to 200,000 are infected every year, and 20 to 30 people die. This is much higher than in other advanced countries that have aggressive vaccination programs such as the United States, which reports around 100 cases a year and few deaths.

"In 2000, 45% of 1-year-old babies, who are most likely to get measles, were vaccinated, but the percentage rose to 78% in 2002," said Keiko Taya, a section chief of the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

She said that in 2001, only 44% of 1-year-old babies had the antibody, but that percentage rose to 73% a year later, and in 2003, the number patients dropped to one-fourth that of two years earlier.

A vaccination rate of 95% is required to control the disease and Taya believes that Japan will soon approach that figure.

The key is making it easier to get vaccinations. Currently, appointments are necessary even though many parents want it on demand.

According to Takehiro Togashi, director of Municipal Sapporo Hospital, the rate of vaccination for 1-and a-half-year-olds was 83% and that for 3-year-olds was 94% in Hokkaido in fiscal 2002, while the percentages were 87% and 96% in Sapporo.

More kids are getting vaccinated because hospitals are distributing reminder stickers to parents so that they can mark the vaccination dates on their calendars.

"We want to wipe out the disease in Hokkaido in two years," Togashi said.

The World Health Organization classifies countries into three types — those that need to control the disease, those that need to prevent mass outbreaks and those that have almost eradicated it.

More than 100 countries, including the U.S, belong to the last group, but Japan belongs to the first one.

The vaccination rate in the U.S. is more than 95% and American children cannot enter school unless they are vaccinated.

But despite the nationwide campaign in Japan, mass outbreaks are commonplace and many adults contract it.

From May to July of last year, mass outbreaks occurred at primary and junior high schools in Miyazaki Prefecture. Two-thirds of the 400 children infected with the disease had not been vaccinated.

Students at 15 of the nation's medical schools contracted the disease last year, according to the Japan Pediatrics Association.

At Kagoshima University, about 60 students at its medical school were infected last June.

"It was considered that vaccinations were effective during a lifetime, but immunity gradually decreases, and there are people who never become immune even after being vaccinated," said Nobuhiko Okabe, chief of the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center.

Japan is the only industrialized country that does not vaccinate twice. In the U.S. the first shot is given around 18 months and the second around 3 to 4 years.

Some experts in Japan call for introducing this system.

Every year there are about 50 reports of side-effects from the vaccine.

Okabe said that gelatin, which used to be used a preservative, can cause allergies. "But the dangers of the disease far outweigh the side-effects of the vaccine." (Kyodo News)

May 14, 2004

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=feature&id=638

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