DHS Honors Wisconsin Health Care Providers with the Wisconsin BigShot Awards

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has announced its annual Wisconsin BigShot awards, celebrating 90 Wisconsin health care providers for protecting children's health by ensuring they are up to date on childhood vaccinations, including measles, pertussis, meningitis, and HPV.

"Vaccines continue to be the safest and most effective way to prevent many of the diseases that used to cause serious illnesses and deaths," said State Health Officer Paula Tran. "These awards celebrate the health care experts across the state who work tirelessly to understand the best and most up-to-date science and safety information, to answer parent questions, and ultimately help protect kids and entire communities from the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases."

The ongoing measles outbreaks in some U.S. states underscore the importance of keeping children up to date on vaccines. While most parents are choosing to vaccinate their children, new data on the DHS childhood and adolescent vaccine data dashboard shows that 18.6% of 24-month-old Wisconsin children are not protected against measles, leaving them vulnerable to the disease. Wisconsin is also behind other states when it comes to other childhood vaccines including polio and diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) according to a report the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) put out late last year.

The annual BigShot award recognizes providers who are working to get Wisconsin children up to date on these and other routine childhood vaccines. There are four different categories of awards with recognition given to providers who have:

• 90% or more of patients between 24-36 months of age up to date on their routine childhood vaccine schedule of at least 4 doses of DTaP, 3 doses of poliovirus, 1 dose of MMR, 3 doses of Hib, 3 doses of HepB, 1 dose of varicella, and 4 doses of PCV.
• 80% or more of patients between 13-17 years of age up to date on Tdap, Meningococcal vaccines, and have completed the human papilloma virus (HPV) series.
• 95% or more of patients had at least 1 dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age.
• 95% or more of patients between 5-6 years of age had 2 doses of MMR vaccine.

The full list of Wisconsin BigShot award winners and information about the award categories can be found on the DHS Wisconsin BigShot webpage. Find out more about how vaccines are studied for safety, their impact, and how to get vaccinated on the DHS get the facts page.

More information on Wisconsin childhood and adolescent vaccination rate data can be found on the DHS childhood and adolescent vaccine data dashboard. Caregivers who want to view their child's vaccine history can go to the Wisconsin Immunization Registry or check with a trusted health care provider.