Revolutionary Medicine: The Importance of Child Vaccines

By 1955 the long-awaited polio vaccine was created, followed by vaccines for measles (1963), mumps (1967) and rubella (1969), which were later combined in 1971 into the MMR vaccine. Thanks to the success of vaccination, the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 with no cases of natural occurring smallpox as of 1977. Today, smallpox is the only human disease that has been eradicated.

“Vaccination is the best way to prevent the development of significant disease from one of these organisms. Once the disease is contracted, there are not often specific therapies other than supportive care for some of these infections and they can be deadly,” Dr. Rizzo continued.

In 1989-1991 measles outbreaks resulted in tens of thousands of cases of measles and 166 of deaths. This outbreak was largely due to low vaccination rates in preschool-aged children where CDC found that among children aged 16-59 months who developed measles, only 15% had been vaccinated. The main reason that children did not get vaccinated was due to cost. Hoping to bridge the gap and save lives, Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) on August 10, 1993, which led to the creation of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program in October 1, 1994. According to the CDC, since the VFC program began, among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths, resulting in direct savings of $540 billion and societal savings of $2.7 trillion.

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How the VCF Program Works

The goal of the VFC Program is to ensure that all eligible children have access to receive recommended vaccinations to protect against 19 different diseases, even if their parent or guardian is unable to afford the cost of the vaccine. Through the VFC program, children ages 18 and younger who are Medicaid-eligible, uninsured, underinsured, or American Indian or Alaskan Native are automatically covered to receive routine vaccinations that are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the CDC The VFC program provides opportunity to protect children’s health, reduce illness and hospitalization and minimize barriers to vaccination. Learn more about the VFC program at cdc.gov/vaccines-for-children.