Vaccination coverage levels among Alaska Native children aged 19-35 months--National Immunization Survey,United States, 2000-2001

In 2000, a total of 118,846 persons indicated that their race/ethnicity was Alaska Native (AN), either alone or in combination with one or more other racial/ethnic groups. AN groups comprise 19% of the population of Alaska and 0.4% of the total U.S. population. The AN grouping includes Eskimos, Aleuts, and Alaska Indians (members of the Alaska Athabaskan, Tlingit, Haida, or other AN tribes). Eskimo represented the largest AN tribal grouping, followed by Tlingit/Haida, Alaska Athabascan, and Aleut. Vaccination coverage levels among AN children have not been reported previously. This report presents data from the National Immunization Survey (NIS) for 2000-2001, which indicate that vaccination coverage levels among AN children aged 19-35 months exceeded the national health objective for 2010 (objective no. 14-22) for the majority of vaccines. This achievement indicates the effectiveness of using multiple strategies to increase vaccination coverage. Similar efforts might increase vaccination coverage in other rural regions with American Indian (AI)/AN populations.