Why a Coalition?
Have you ever wondered, "How can we protect 'everyone' from vaccine preventable diseases?"
It has been done. Smallpox, a devastating disease that caused the death of millions of people worldwide, was officially declared eradicated from the worldwide population due to vaccinations by 1980. Polio is on the short list, having already been eradicated from most parts of the developed world.
But no one physician office can do it alone. Seven public health nurses cannot do it themselves. No single medical clinic or pharmacy can do it all. It takes an army. It takes a coalition, like the Mat-Su Vaccine Coalition, of concerned organizations and citizens that strive to promote healthy children.
The research and plan of Healthy People 2010 aims at a 90% childhood vaccine rate to prevent spread of vaccine preventable disease in children and to, as well, lay a foundation for the prevention of spread of preventable disease in adulthood.
What is Alaska's rate? Alaska's childhood vaccine rate is a 64% (National Immunization Survey 2008)
Vaccine coverage can only be done with collaboration of system players that make it a point to stay educated, prepared and carry on the process of primary prevention. That is what a coalition is all about! Through these pages we hope to educate and prepare you as you work to protect your child and those around you from succumbing to vaccine-preventable diseases.
Yes, you have heard it before, “Playing well with others.” And though it is not a game we are playing it is a serious competition against the bacteria and virus population that would otherwise win against the human population.
