Seattle kids are less likely to get polio vaccine than kids in Rwanda, and rates continue to drop

Nurses prepare influenza vaccine injections during a flu shot clinic at Dorchester House, a health care clinic, in Boston, Massachusetts January 12, 2013. REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER


Nurses prepare influenza vaccine injections during a flu shot clinic at Dorchester House, a health care clinic, in Boston, Massachusetts January 12, 2013. REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER

More stunningly bad news about US vaccination numbers. In Washington state, a study shows parents are increasingly opting out of the polio vaccine. Two decades years ago, 95.4 percent of kindergarteners in Washington state were vaccinated for polio. This year, only 88.4 percent had the vaccine. That's a lower rate than in in the African nation of Rwanda.

From KUOW.org:

It's even more dramatic in Seattle, where 81.4 percent of kindergarteners have been vaccinated for polio. That's lower than the 2013 polio immunization rates for 1-year-olds in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Algeria, El Salvador, Guyana, Sudan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Yemen, among other countries, according to data from the World Health Organization.