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•. . • . i ; , - , PAGE »-PLAINDEALER - WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22,1979 ion's goal: good By • J JOSEPH A. CALIFANO, JR. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare In April 1977, at President Carter's request, I announced the beginning of a National Childhood Immunization Initia­ tive with an ambitious goal: • We sought to assure that at least 90 percent of the nation's children were fully immunized against six preventable child­ hood diseases by October 1, 1979. Working with the states, our progress in preventing child­ hood diseases has been rapid-- so rapid, in fact, that I am today announcing a further goal: the elimination of indigenous mea­ sles from the United States. Specifically, we are today launching an effort that seeks to free the United States from mea­ sles by October 1, 1982. If we are successful, no mea­ sles will occur in the United States after that date unless the disease is introduced from other countries. Measles is a disease which many regard as one of the minor hazaids of growing up. And it is -- for most Americans. But, many children are not so lucky: • Complications, such as middle ear infection and pneu­ monia, occur in about 5 percent ofthecasest • Encephalitis, whi<ih can lead to deafness or mental retar­ dation, occurs about once in every 1,000 cases. • Severe cases of measles can also cause death. As re­ cently as the 1950s, abom 500 American children lost their, lives each year as a result of measles. Remarkable progress has been made in controlling mea­ sles in the past fifteen years. In 1963, more than 400,000 cases of measles were reported each year under a surveillance sys­ tem that picked up a much lower percentage of actual cases than we detect today. • •„ With the widespread intro­ duction of measles vaccine in the mid-1960s, the U.S. annual BACK TO SCHOOL MEANS BOOKS... AND THE BOOKMARK HAS THE BOOKS YOU NEED FOR EVERY PUR­ POSE! •FOREIGN LANGUAGE ( DICTIONARIES SPANISH-ENGLISH qnd Many others •REFERENCE BOOKS •ClIFF'S NOTES •STUDENT BIBLES •CHARLIE BROWN SUPERBOOK SERIES Questions and Answers for the little learner See our "Bookfinder" microfilm machine, listing more tluin 1 million titles; y.>'- _ !BOO£ maiH 3438 W. ELM, McHENRY 313 >444 OPEN DAILY 9 6. FRIDAY TIL 7 f average fell dramatically to 22,000 cases in 1974. Yet by 1977, lack of vigilance had allowed the immunization rate to fall, and the incidence of measles rose steadily to 55,000 cases in that year. Now, however, our Child­ hood Immunization Initiative has begun to show results: e During the first 38 weeks of this year, die United States has experienced 23,170cases of measles. During the first 38 weeks of 1977, the U.S. had 52,988 cases. • Administration of vaccines by public agencies rose 19 per­ cent in 19/7 over 1976, and climbed another 11 percent in die first 6 months of 1978, over the first six months of 1977. e In September 1977, one year ago, there were already 32 states (and the District of Co­ lumbia) in which at least 90 per­ cent of children entering school were immunized against mea­ sles. To eliminate measles, we must build on the achievements of our Childhood Immunization Initiative, Significant benefits can be obtained for a relatively modest investment. Over the last 15 years, this nation has reaped $10.37 in benefits for eveiy dollar the fed­ eral government has paid to im­ munize Americans against mea­ sles. For an investment of $189 million, we saved nearly $2 bil­ lion in costs. lb strengthen the partnership forged in the Childhood Im­ munization Initiative, we will seek additional resources to pro­ vide grant support for state and local health departments in four areas: • We will encourage States to devote more attention to adoles­ cents and young adults who have not been vaccinated in the past. An increasing proportion- of the nation's measles cases af­ fect junior highland high school students. In the current Childhood Im­ munization Initiative, we em­ phasized children below the age of 15, and we have reduced the problem in this group. We must turn our attention specifically to the current gener­ ation of late teenagers that our Childhood Immunization Initia­ tive missed because they were too old. • We will urge states to broaden school immunization requirements to cover children in all grades, not just those newly entering. We will work with the state and school sys­ tems to assure rigorous enforce­ ment of these broadened re­ quirements, to immunize those children who entered school in earlier years--before the Child­ hood Immunization Initiative without being immunized. e We will urge states to adopt aggressive measles surveillance systems in which states actively seek out previously unreported measles cases in order to pre­ vent the spread of disease. Such systems presently exist in a few states but will have to be greatly expanded. .• We will work with states to ' <F. DISEASE IS PREVENTABLE--Be sore to protect America's moat valuable resource . . . it* children. Immunize your kids this fall. improve their ability to respond rapidly and effectively to con­ tain measles outbreaks. State and local health departments must move rapidly to trace any infection to its source and to im­ munize any susceptible persons who might have been exposed. • The effort to eliminate measles will require the com­ mitment of all elements of the health care system, public and private. It will depend most heavily on the efforts of our lo­ cal and state health depart­ ments. I am confident that we will meet the challenge together. These actions should make it possible to eliminate indigenous cases of measles in this country during the next four years. This achievement will not mean the end of measles in the United States. Measles is com­ mon all over the world and is a highly infectious disease. There will be periodic out­ breaks of measles brought into the U.S. from other countries; we cannot expect "eradication" of measles so long as it exists in other countries. It will be essential for us to maintain our high immunity levels and respond quickly and vigorously to all introductions of measles. •SCHOOL'S! QPfM... LET'S \ he school season begins, we must remember that children's safety is everybody's business. Youngsters may not watch out for traffic, so make it your responsibility to drive extra carefully, especially near schools and playgrounds. Alert driving habits insure a safer and happier community. M iNai Serving the banking needs of the Mc Henry area. NaTiONaL KKINKOF MCHBNKY 3814 WEST ELM STREET P O BOX 338 McHENRY. ILLINOIS 60050 815-38*5400