Nearly 89 percent of school-aged children do not receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine before traveling internationally, a practice recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
For the study, researchers analyzed data on 14,602 pretravel consultations for children conducted at 29 U.S. care sites between 2009 and 2018.
Three study findings:
1. Of the 2,864 children eligible to receive an MMR vaccine at the visit, only 41.3 percent got the shot.
2. Forty-four percent of infants did not receive the vaccine, along with 56.5 percent of preschool-aged children and 88.5 percent of school-aged children.
3. The two most common reasons for the lack of vaccination were clinician decision (36.9 percent) and guardian refusal (36.4 percent).
"Strategies may be needed to improve MMR vaccination among pediatric travelers and to reduce measles importations and outbreaks in the United States," researchers concluded.
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