Arizona reports increase in vaccine-preventable child fatalities

Arizona’s child fatality rate dropped in 2024, but the number of children who died from vaccine-preventable diseases increased. Those are findings from the state’s annual Child Fatality Report out this month.

The annual report from Arizona’s Child Fatality Review Program aims to provide data-driven recommendations for policymakers and health care providers to reduce the number of preventable deaths among children from birth to age 17 in the state.

The report says 791 Arizona children died in 2024. That represents a 7.6% decrease in the overall rate of deaths per 100,000 children in the state from 2023. The drop was driven by reductions in deaths due to homicides, suicides, substance use and premature births.

“We did see some decreases in deaths in a number of categories, which was very good news,” said Dr. Mary Rimsza, chair of the Arizona Child Fatality Review Team. “But we also had some disturbing findings.”

This year’s report was only the third to include a category detailing infectious disease deaths.

“We decided to add this to the report [in 2023] as we noted that more of the ‘natural’ or ‘medical’ causes of death were due to infectious diseases,” Rimsza said.

And infectious disease deaths among children have increased in each report since the category was added. This year, the report covers 109 children in the state who died from infectious diseases in 2024 — a 16% increase over 2023.

Of those infectious disease deaths, about 36% were considered potentially preventable by vaccines or other means.

“As a pediatrician, I feel this is largely due to misinformation and misunderstanding about the safety of the vaccines versus the danger of the diseases that they prevent,” Rimsza said.

Arizona’s childhood vaccination rates have fallen steadily over the past decade. According to the state health department, about 94% of the state’s kindergarteners were vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella in 2014. By 2024, the rate had dropped to below 89%. Vaccination rates for Hepatitis B, pertussis, and other infectious diseases have also fallen.

Many pediatricians have been raising concerns over vaccine misinformation recently. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — under the direction of longtime vaccine skeptic, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — revised its website this month to say a link between childhood vaccines and autism cannot be ruled out. That assertion has long been debunked by public health experts.

“We call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations,” said American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr. Susan J. Kressly, in a statement. “Anyone repeating this harmful myth is misinformed or intentionally trying to mislead parents.”

In response to rising infectious disease deaths, the Arizona Child Fatality report recommends state and local health departments promote vaccine confidence through proactive messaging about vaccine safety and effectiveness.

The report notes 65% of infectious disease-related child deaths in Arizona in 2024 were among children under 1 year old. The report encourages parents to keep infants away from unvaccinated adults who may have contagious illnesses.

“Our recommendation to families is that they talk to their physician about vaccines, that they do not delay vaccines, because every time you delay it, you increase the chance your child will be exposed to a vaccine-preventable disease,” Rimsza said.