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FRIDAY, Aug. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Immunization shots used to be the realm of the young.
Babies would go through series after series of vaccinations. And toddlers would take their shots before entering preschool.
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And they still do. But vaccines are now expanding to include all age ranges, in an attempt to ward off disease from the cradle to the grave.
What's more, immunization rates continue to gradually improve in the United States, although not as quickly as public health officials would like.
About 77 percent of children 19 months to 35 months had received all their recommended vaccinations in 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It falls short of the federal goal of 80 percent but is a small improvement over the 76 percent rate found in 2005.
"We may have a little way to go, but that's not bad," said Dr. Thomas Weida, professor of family and community medicine at Penn State's Hershey Medical Center. The government's next goal is 90 percent of kids in that age range immunized by 2010.
Public health officials see these regular vaccinations as a wall holding back terrible diseases that have plagued mankind for centuries: measles, whooping cough, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and mumps, among others.
"Vaccines are probably one of the top two or three public health interventions of all time," said Dr. Doug Campos-Outcalt, associate chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix Campus. "They now have been so successful, they suffer from their success, because people don't see the diseases and the horrors associated with them."
The immunization goals are part of an effort to ensure that even those who don't receive vaccinations will be protected from disease by those who do, Weida said.
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