Korea is a 'Child Vaccination Rate' Advanced Country.. Higher Compared to Major Countries

[Financial News] The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced the '2024 National Child Vaccination Rate Status' on the 28th, stating that the domestic infant vaccination rate remains at a high level. This statistic, which has been announced annually since 2011, is used as basic data for establishing infectious disease prevention policies.
According to the announcement, the complete vaccination rates by age were 93.3% for 1-year-olds, 93.6% for 2-year-olds, 88.7% for 3-year-olds, and 89.4% for 6-year-olds. This indicates the percentage of children in each age group who have received all recommended doses of vaccines according to the standard vaccination schedule.
Looking at the trends by year, the vaccination rate for 2-year-olds slightly increased compared to last year, but the rates for 1-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and 6-year-olds decreased somewhat. In particular, the complete vaccination rate for 1-year-olds decreased by 3.1 percentage points compared to the previous year, which was analyzed to be due to the inclusion of the rotavirus vaccine in the national vaccination program in 2023, increasing the number of doses.
However, excluding rotavirus, the complete vaccination rate for 1-year-olds is 96.2%, similar to the previous year's 96.4%. For the rotavirus vaccine, the vaccination rate for 2-year-olds born in 2022 before the national vaccination introduction was 89.0%, but this year it increased by 5.2 percentage points to 94.2%, showing a high acceptance rate.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency also emphasized that Korea's vaccination rate is higher than that of major overseas countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
In all six major vaccines, including Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP), Polio (IPV), Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR), Varicella (VAR), Hib, and Pneumococcal (PCV), the vaccination rates were 1 to 19 percentage points higher.
Seung-kwan Lim, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said, “Vaccination is the most effective means of protecting children from infectious diseases,” and added, “We hope that parents will continue to actively vaccinate according to the standard vaccination schedule.”

vrdw88@fnnews.com Kang Jung-mo Reporter