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Immunization registries are confidential, computerized information systems that collect and consolidate vaccination data from multiple health-care providers, generate reminder and recall notifications, and assess vaccination coverage within a defined geographic area (1,2). A registry with added capabilities, such as vaccine management, adverse event reporting, lifespan vaccination histories, and linkages with electronic data sources, is called an immunization information system (IIS) (3). This report summarizes data from CDC's 2005 Immunization Information System Annual Report (IISAR), a survey of grantees in 50 states, five cities,[dagger] and the District of Columbia (DC) that receive funding under section 317b of the Public Health Service Act. These data indicated that approximately 56% of U.S. children aged <6 years participated in an IIS, an increase from 48% in 2004. Moreover, 75% percent of public vaccination provider sites and 44% of private vaccination provider sites submitted vaccination data to an US during July-December 2005. These findings underscore the need to increase the number of participating children, from the current 13 million to approximately 21 million, to assure 95% participation of children aged <6 years and improve the effectiveness of U.S. immunization programs.
The 2005 IISAR, a self-administered, Internet-based questionnaire, was available to immunization program managers as part of an annual reporting requirement. As in previous years, respondents were asked about the number of children aged <6 years participating in the US, the number of healthcare provider sites participating in the US, and other programmatic and technical capabilities (e.g., data linkages with other public health programs, data use, vaccine management, software and hardware capabilities, and reporting functions). All 56 grantees were asked to complete the questionnaire; 52 reported on the number of children aged <6 years participating in an US. Estimates of the total number of children aged <6 years were based on 2005 U.S. census data.
The findings indicated that, of approximately 23 million U.S. children aged <6 years, an estimated 13 million (56%) participated in an US. Eleven (20%) US grantees (Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Michigan, Mississippi, New York City, North Dakota, Oregon, Philadelphia, and Wisconsin) had >95% of children aged <6 years participating in an US (Figure). Eleven (20%) other US grantees (DC, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana,...