Most U.S. Kids Getting Recommended Vaccinations

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According to the CDC, the recommended vaccines include four doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTaP); three doses of polio vaccine; one or more doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR); three doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (Hib); three doses of hepatitis B vaccine; and one or more doses of varicella, or chickenpox, vaccine.

According to the CDC, vaccinations should start shortly after birth and continue to age 2. The last dose of the DTaP vaccine is the only vaccine that hasn't achieved 90 percent coverage. Coverage for this vaccination remains at 84.5 percent, the report said.

For the first time, 2007 saw 90 percent coverage for the varicella vaccine and for the third dose of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). Coverage with four doses of the PCV vaccine has reached 75.3 percent. The PCV vaccine protects against several types of meningitis, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and ear infections, according to the report.

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Vaccine coverage did, however, vary between the states from 91.3 percent in Maryland to 63.1 percent in Nevada. Vaccination coverage also varied in the 14 metropolitan areas covered in the CDC survey. In Philadelphia, the city with the highest coverage, 82.2 percent of children had received all the recommended vaccines, compared with 69.6 percent of children in San Bernardino, Calif., the area with the lowest coverage.

"There is still a vaccine coverage gap in poor children compared with others," Schuchat said. "The good news this year is that the gap between those children living in poverty and other children is narrowing. So, we are making progress, but we are not finished with all the work we have to do," she said.

Dr. Pascal James Imperato, dean of the master of public health program at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City, called the new report very good news.

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