"Mommy, What's Mumps?"

National Survey Shows Traditional Childhood Diseases A Mystery to Kids Today Thanks to Modern Vaccines and National Vaccination Programs

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WASHINGTON, April 10, 1996 -- For kids in America today, the life-threatening childhood diseases their parents feared are generally unknown because of this nation's success In vaccination, according to a survey just completed for Merck & Co., Inc. When asked to rate the importance of certain technological advances to their own lives, children and adults overwhelmingly put medicine and vaccines at the very top of the list, over cars, television and computer games.

Public Opinion Strategies (Alexandria, Virginia) was commissioned by Merck to conduct a national telephone survey of 600 adults ages 40 and over and 600 children, ages 8 to 12. It is the first national survey to actually question children about their attitudes toward getting shots and to measure their understanding of vaccines and the diseases they prevent.

"What's clear is that with the success of our immunization programs, vaccines have reduced the fear of these diseases among adults -- and even name recognition among children," William Atkinson, M.D., a medical epidemiologist with the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said today at a press conference releasing the survey findings.

Parents believe that vaccines have made it safer for their children, the survey shows. Among adults, concerns about measles, mumps and rubella have definitely diminished over time, since the introduction of a vaccine. Concern over measles, which 74% of adults feel are "life-threatening," dropped a full point, from a mean score of 3.2 on a scale of 5, to 2.2, with 5 being the greatest level of concern.

Most kids today say they have not even heard the words "measles," "mumps" or "rubella" and even fewer say they know what the words mean, the survey shows. Eighty-four percent of girls (81%, boys) say they have never heard of rubella, a disease that can be disastrous in early pregnancy, leading to fetal death, premature delivery and congenital defects, including deafness and blindness. Only approximately 3% say they know what it means, with definitions ranging from "A disease" (girl, age 10) to "Measles except it is worse" (girl, age 12).

Sixty-five percent of children say they know what "measles" is, but their definitions most often are nonspecific -- like 'red spots" (42%) or "like chickenpox" (28%). Chickenpox, a disease for which there was no vaccine available in the U.S. until last year, by far is the best known of the illnesses tested, with 95% of kids reporting that they have some Idea of what it is.

Kids have a good understanding of why they got shots and that it is in their best interest to do so, the survey shows. Eighty-two percent say they should get shots 'so I don't get sick"; the next closest response (15%) was that they need to got shots to go to school.

But less than half (40%) of all children ages 8 to 12 can define what a vaccine is or how vaccines work to prevent disease. Definitions include: "A special shot." (girl, age 8); "It's where they stick a needle in your arm, and I think they put water into your body." (boy, age 9); "It's like some kind of deodorant or something like that.' (boy, age 10); "It's a shot or medicine you take to stop you from getting sick. It usually lasts five to ten years." (boy, age 11); "You get a small amount of the disease injected into your body and it fights it off." (girl, age 12). Knowledge of the term "vaccine" Is definitely related to the age of the child, with only 13% of eight year olds saying they know what it is, compared to fully 61% of 12 year olds.

"Clearly, there Is a much bigger role for children as partners in prevention in America, along with parents, physicians and the public health system," said R. Gordon Douglas, Jr., M.D., President of Merck Vaccines. "The challenge is for children to understand the value of vaccines in context -- as a powerful weapon in an ongoing battle to prevent disease."

Twenty-five years of national immunization programs with a combination vaccine for three childhood diseases -- measles, mumps and rubella ("German measles") -- have all but dropped morbidity and mortality for these diseases off the charts, according to Dr. Atkinson. Yet the survey shows that while parents appreciate the role of vaccines in preventing these diseases, they underestimate what a dramatic difference they actually have made.

For example, only 12% say that the vaccine for measles has reduced the incidence of the disease by 95% or more, with 14% estimating the decrease is less than 49%. In fact, according to the CDC, morbidity and mortality rates have declined by 99.9% for measles -- 288 cases with no deaths in 1995, compared to 500,000 cases and 500 deaths annually before the vaccine was introduced in 1963.

The survey also illustrates that parents are not telling their children about the serious nature of these childhood diseases. A majority of kids say that getting one of these diseases would only make someone .. moderately sick" or "not very sick."

AIDS and cancer top the wish list of now vaccines for both children and adults in the study - AIDS/HIV is mentioned by 24% of children and 62% of adults; cancer by 11% of children and 38% of adults.

CONTACT: Ellen Bafundo or Carla Answini of Robert Marston and Associates, 212-371-2200