Healthy People 2010 objectives for immunizations include that, for people over age 65, 90% will be vaccinated for pneumococcal pneumonia and 90% will be vaccinated for influenza within the past year. As of 2001, 57.9% of S.C. residents age 65 and over had received pneumonia vaccination and 66.2% had received influenza vaccination within the past year.

Pediatric Immunization
Immunization rates are indicators of whether children in communities are receiving adequate preventive health care. After a statewide campaign to increase immunizations for Polio, Measles, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Haemophilus Influenza B, and Whooping Cough, the percentage of S.C. children who are fully immunized has increased. In Spartanburg County in 1990, 47.6% of the children less than two years old seen in public health clinics were not fully immunized. This number had declined to 17.3% in 2001 (figure 1).

In 2001, the DHEC statewide birth registry survey of all two year old children in Spartanburg County found that 88.1% were fully immunized. S.C. Kids Count data indicate that, by 2006, 84% of two-year-olds in S.C. were immunized. This was slightly above the national rate of 83%. Immunization rates since 2002 have held fairly steady for S.C. pediatric immunization, fluctuating from 79% to 86%.

Adult Immunization
As with pediatric immunization, adult immunization rates are indicative of the level of preventive health
care in a community. Statewide BRFSS data for 2007 found that:
• Higher percentages of whites had been vaccinated in general.
• For pneumonia vaccinations, higher percentages of residents with low educational levels and low incomes had been vaccinated.
• For influenza vaccinations, the inverse was true as vaccination rate increased with increasing educational level and increasing income level.
• Hepatitis B vaccination rates are higher for blacks than whites and are even higher for residents of other races.
• Hepatitis B Vaccination rates increase with increasing educational level and income level.
Among peer counties and the state aggregate, Spartanburg County had the second lowest rate of residents age 18+ vaccinated for influenza and hepatitis B. However, Spartanburg County had the highest rate of residents vaccinated for pneumonia (Table 2).