The mission of the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition (CCIC) is to promote improved access, delivery, and demand for childen's vaccinations to keep Colorado healthy.
Vaccination is one of the most effective tools for the prevention of illness, disability, and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control, vaccinations have saved more lives than any other health intervention except for clean water. Currently, Colorado recommends vaccinations to prevent 16 dangerous childhood diseases, all of which were once commonplace. The Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition harnesses the strengths and resources of public health departments, nonprofit agencies, physicians, schools, policy makers, and businesses to give Colorado children the best possible access to immunizations.
Immunization in Colorado
Colorado has a history of struggling to immunize our children fully and on time. These low immunization rates can be blamed for our high pertussis rates and the occurrence of hospitalization for vaccine-preventable diseases.
· Between 1996 and 2005, 208 adults and 32 children in Colorado died of diseases that could most likely have been prevented by vaccinations.
· In 2006, provisional data in Colorado shows that 710 persons were diagnosed with pertussis (whooping cough), and 1,503 with chickenpox (varicella). There were 35 new diagnoses of hepatitis B and 44 of hepatitis A. In relatively smaller numbers, mumps, meningococcus, and Haemophilus influenza type B are still present in Colorado.
· Epidemiologic data from The Children’s Hospital in Denver has documented that over half of the vaccine-preventable disease cases in Colorado occur in children less than two years of age. These early years are the most critical to maintaining the long-term health of Colorado’s children.
These diseases are also costly to treat. In 2003 Colorado spent $10.4 million in our public health programs for hospitalizations associated with vaccine-preventable diseases.
