The number of children receiving flu vaccines in New Mexico is higher than the national average, according to the state Department of Health.
During the 2010-2011 flu season, almost 60 percent of kids between the ages of five and 12 got vaccinated for flu. However, that number jumped to about 70 percent the following year.
“That’s basically the result of a very concerted effort and a collaborative effort,” Dan Burke, with the Department of Health immunization program, explained, “among a number of people to reach out to the schools and get vaccines into the schools where the kids are and make it convenient for families to have their kids vaccinated for the flu.”
Burke says a substantial number of those vaccines were paid for with federal funding.