Dr. Janet Shen has been a pediatrician in Anchorage for almost 30 years and she said she has seen more people worried about vaccinating their kids lately.
“We often hear that, why should we vaccinate against these diseases?” she said. “And is it really necessary to get vaccines?”
But she said this recent statewide epidemic of whooping cough, or pertussis, is a bit of a wake-up call. As of last week, 286 Alaskans had reported testing positive for the highly-contagious disease so far this year. Whooping cough has led to 16 hospitalizations in the state and one infant death. Nationwide, the number of cases has more than quadrupled since last year and experts have attributed the surge to a dip in vaccination rates.
“I think this is a good reminder that if the vaccination rate drops, these diseases can rear their ugly heads again,” Shen said.
Alaska generally has low vaccination rates and it has one of the lowest rates in the country when it comes to vaccination against whooping cough in children. Vaccination rates aren’t the only factor in the current epidemic, but rates of vaccination against the disease in Alaska are well below what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for community-wide protection – about 30 to 35 percent lower, depending on the age group. For example, in Alaska, 62 percent of kids 5 to 6 years old are vaccinated and the CDC recommends 90 percent across all age groups.
Before vaccines, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of childhood deaths, according to the CDC. Vaccines reduced the number of cases by about 90 percent. But in the last two decades, the country has seen an increase in cases again.
Sarah Aho, immunization program manager for the state, said less than two-thirds of kids in Alaska are up to date with their whooping cough vaccinations, called DTap or TDap and that also protect against diphtheria and tetanus.
“We’ve seen [that] rates for children dropped quite a bit during the COVID pandemic,” Aho said. “They are starting to come back up, but we still haven’t reached pre-pandemic levels.”
People weren’t keeping up with vaccinations during the pandemic and the vaccination rates now are lowest for 5- and 6-year-old kids – kids born right before the pandemic. But Aho said rates for adults have rebounded significantly since the pandemic and she’s hopeful the vaccination rates for kids will follow a similar trend.
“Adult coverage for TDap has actually increased since COVID,” Aho said. “In 2018, it was about 45% and now it’s 65%. So, I think adults have done a really good job of working to get up to date on their vaccines, but 65% is still relatively low. It’s not up in that 80%-90% that would be really great to see.”
Reaching the CDC’s recommended vaccination rate of 90% wouldn’t ensure Alaska is free of outbreaks or epidemics, but it would lower the risk. And that could lower the number of deaths of those most vulnerable to whooping cough, like babies and the immunocompromised.
Aho said Alaska has other barriers to access besides vaccine hesitancy.
“It’s not just people not wanting to get vaccinated,” Aho said. “It is also about access to vaccines, access to medical care and, honestly, time and priorities for families. That can look really different for families across the state.”
Shelly Foint-Anderson, who’s been a public health nurse in Alaska for 38 years, said she also sees many parents question the value of vaccines, like for chicken pox.
“For most kids, it’s a childhood disease. I had it,” Foint-Anderson said. “But if you’re the child who gets Group [A] Strep from it and winds up in a hospital and dies, that’s not okay.”
She said now that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, families and public health practitioners have a little more space to focus on vaccination. In her decades of work in the state, she said she’s seen vaccination rates fluctuate. She said very low rates in the 1990s eventually led to Alaska establishing a statewide immunization coalition.
Foint-Anderson said the aim was to “get a group of people together to really look at our rates and to move forward and to try to increase and get us out of being one of the states with such low immunization rates.”
This year, Foint-Anderson is part of a group bringing back the coalition. She said one of the coalition’s first steps will be gathering more accurate data about vaccination rates and barriers to access. She hopes they’ll have a statewide strategic plan by the start of 2025.
RELATED: Whooping cough spike reaches epidemic level in Alaska, public health experts warn
Rachel Cassandra covers health and wellness for Alaska Public Media. Reach her atrcassandra@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Rachel here.
