By Deborah L. Shelton , AMNews staff. May 3, 1999. A doctor retires. A family moves. Records get lost.
Memories grow hazy.
It's not unusual for a child's immunization history to fall between the cracks. Indeed, there's more information to keep track of nowadays. The schedule of recommended childhood immunizations has been revised to include additional vaccines, and many children now receive shots from more than one health provider, including school nurses and pharmacies. So almost a million children younger than 2 are missing one or more of their shots. An effort is under way, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to develop immunization registries that maintain comprehensive, consolidated vaccination records.