Current Report Articles
August Is National Immunization Awareness Month
MultiGenerational Family (Aug. 15, 2025) – National Immunization Awareness Month highlights the importance of routine vaccines to protect people of all ages from vaccine-preventable diseases. Trusted resources your facility can rely on for factual information to stay updated and help answer questions from your patients include: Immunize Kansas Coalition, of which KHA is a member, American Academy of Pediatrics, Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, American Medical Association and Voices for Vaccines. Be Immune Kansas, developed in partnership with the Kansas Chapter of the AAP and KAFP, is also a trusted source and includes a toolkit for health care professionals. Additionally, KDHE's Immunization Coverage Data provides current immunization data for kindergarten-age children, as well as influenza vaccine data. KDHE's Measles Data Dashboard shows there have been a total of 90 measles cases across 12 Southwest and South Central Kansas counties so far in 2025. Measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates in Kansas kindergarteners have declined from 94.47 percent in the 2019 – 2020 academic year to 90.12 percent in the 2023 – 2024 academic year. According to the AAP, the community immunity threshold for measles (the percent of the population needed to be immune to measles through vaccination or previous infection) is 92-94 percent.
--Karen Braman