HOUSE MEMORIAL 20

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009

INTRODUCED BY

Al Park

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO CONSIDER WHETHER THE PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJUGATE VACCINE AND THE MENINGOCOCCAL CONJUGATE VACCINE SHOULD BE REQUIRED FOR CHILDREN.

     WHEREAS, the Immunization Act, which is codified in Chapter 24, Article 5 NMSA 1978, requires the department of health to promulgate regulations governing the required immunizations of children attending school and further requires that the required immunizations shall conform to recommendations of the advisory committee on immunization practices of the United States department of health and human services and the American academy of pediatrics; and

     WHEREAS, the department of health, in conformance with those recommendations, requires children who are not exempted to receive the following vaccinations prior to enrolling in child care, preschool or school: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, Haemophilus influenzae type B, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and varicella; and

     WHEREAS, the advisory committee on immunization practices has, since 2000, also recommended that children younger than two years old receive the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, but the department of health has not yet required that vaccination prior to enrollment in child care; and

     WHEREAS, the committee also recommends that children receive the meningococcal conjugate vaccine at ages eleven years and twelve years, but the department of health has not yet required that vaccination prior to enrollment in school; and

     WHEREAS, invasive pneumococcal disease is a group of life-threatening infections caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae and includes bacterial meningitis, bacteremia, sepsis and bacteremic pneumonia; and

     WHEREAS, pneumococcal disease accounts for more deaths than any other vaccine-preventable disease, and meningococcal disease is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in children ages two years through eighteen years, infecting between one thousand and two thousand six hundred people of all ages in the United States each year and killing about ten percent of those infected; and

     WHEREAS, vaccines remain the best defense available today against infectious diseases, including pneumococcal disease and meningococcal disease;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health be requested to review its immunization program and consider whether the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and the meningococcal conjugate vaccine should be included in the schedule of required vaccines; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of health report on its review and actions to the interim legislative health and human services committee by October 2009; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of health.

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