Childhood Immunization as a Tool to Address Health Disparities

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, at 1 p.m. – 2 p.m., EDT

One of the challenges for public health in the 21st is reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities, domestically and globally. Infectious diseases in childhood can lead to complications, disability, and death. Protecting all children from vaccine-preventable diseases is a public health mandate, requiring the elimination of disparities that put some children at higher risk. Childhood immunization is a proven public health intervention that protects our nation and our children.

This session of Grand Rounds explored ways that immunization efforts have served to reduce disparities in childhood infectious diseases, demonstrating an effective and cost-effective tool for advancing health equity. Vaccines protect both the people who receive them and those with whom they come in contact. Vaccines are responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that were once common in the United States and around the world. Vaccine-preventable diseases have a costly impact, resulting from doctor’s visits, hospitalizations, and premature deaths.

Viewers learned about how immunization programs have positively affected children’s health, as experts explored public health, clinical, and policy implications of vaccinating children.

Presented By

Chesley Richards, MD, MPH
Director, Immunization Services Division
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
“US Immunization Program: Successful Reduction in Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Vaccination Coverage Among Young Children”

Trudy Murphy, MD
Team Lead, Vaccine Research and Policy
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD & TB Prevention, CDC
“Progress toward Eliminating Hepatitis A Disease in the United States”

Tom Hennessy, MD, MPH
Director, Arctic Investigations Program, Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
“Use of Vaccines to Reduce Health Disparities Among American Indian and Alaska Native Children”

Alan Hinman, MD, MPH
Director for Programs, Center for Vaccine Equity
The Task Force for Global Health
“Immunization as a Path to Equity”

Facilitated By

Tanja Popovic, MD, PhD, Scientific Director, Public Health Grand Rounds
John Iskander, MD, MPH, Deputy Scientific Director, Public Health Grand Rounds
Susan Laird, MSN, RN, Communications Manager, Public Health Grand Rounds

Additional Resources

• Vaccines for Children
• Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, CDC
• The GAVI Alliance