RI Vaccination Rates Among The Best In The U.S.

Vaccination rates in Rhode Island are among the highest in the country, especially among schoolchildren. During the 2017-2018 flu season, Rhode Island children had the highest coverage rate in the nation.

According to Joseph Wendelken, the Public Information Officer for the Rhode Island Department of Health, 76 percent of Rhode Island children and 44 percent of adults received a flu vaccination.

"A core function of public health is preventing illnesses and injuries before they occur," Wendelken said. "Vaccines are one of the most effective prevention tools available to us today. Countless kids were spared the serious health consequences of many diseases because Rhode Island communities are so well vaccinated."

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Rhode Island also has one of the highest rates of vaccination against HPV in young males.

Currently, only about one percent of Rhode Island kindergartners have a medical or religious exemption from vaccinations.

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion hopes to reach 70 percent flu vaccination coverage in everyone aged six months or older by 2020 through the Healthy People 2020 initiative. While Rhode Island met this goal in children in 2017, none of the vaccination groups came close to 70 percent coverage.

At this time, RIDOH has not reported an increase in vaccine preventable disease in the state. The exception, according to Wendelken, is pertussis. Cases of the disease will occasionally spike, most often due to the vaccine starting to lose effectiveness when a child is in middle school.

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