Majority of school-aged children aren’t vaccinated against MMR ahead of international travel

The majority of preschool and school-aged children haven’t received the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine as required before they travel abroad, according to new research. Looking at data from more than 14,600 consultations at a CDC network of clinics about international travel between 2009-2018, researchers found that nearly 57% of preschoolers and almost 89% of school-aged children who were eligible to receive the MMR vaccine hadn’t received the vaccination. About 44% of eligible infants were not immunized. Medical exemptions and guardian refusal were the two most common reasons why the children weren’t vaccinated. Still, in more than 40% of these consultations for infants and preschoolers, physicians did not recommend MMR vaccination, which the authors write signals a major gap among these doctors who are travel medicine experts.