What is the Child Watch Visitation Program?

The State of Children's Health in America:How Texarkana Children CompareWho are the poor children of the nineties?• One in five children in the United States - 14.3 million - lived in poverty in1991, the highest number since 1965. The majority of poor children are white, have aparent that works, and live in small towns and rural and suburban America.In Bowie County, 23.3% of the total population under the age of 18(22,146) is poor. 27% of the total population under the age of 6(1,855) is poor.In Miller County, 30.5% of the total population under the age of 18(3,322) is poor. 33.7% of the total population under the age of 6(1,155) is poor.• The median income of young families with children in the United States(families headed by a parent under 30) plummeted by 32% from 1973 to 1990.What is meant by the -immunization crisis"today?faced in the United States• Over the past decade, the proportion of U.S. infants and toddlers adequatelyimmunized against preventable childhood disease has fallen. The most glaring resultwas a three-year measles epidemic that claimed over 55,000 children, including 89who died in 1990 alone. Twice as many children contracted pertussis last year than in1981, and rubella cases stood five times higher than in 1988.• The United States ranks behind 16 other nations in the proportion of infantsimmunized against polio. When the proportion of U.S. nonwhite infants adequatelyimmunized is compared to other nations' overall rates, the United states ranks 70th inthe world, behind countries such as Borundi, Indonesia, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad,and Tobago.What is causing this crisis ?• Since 1981, the price of a single dose of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP)vaccine rose from 33 cents to nearly $10. The price for a dose of polio vaccinequadrupled from $2.10 to (9.45. Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine nearlytripled, rising from $9.12 to $25.29.• An increasing number of pediatricians and family practitioners are referring atleast some of their patients to public clinics for immunizations. In one study, theoverwhelming majority of participating doctors cited the affordability of immunizations41