North Dakota State University

Mission and Goals

Immunizations have been acknowledged as one of the most important advances in public health in the last century, protecting children and adults from dangerous diseases that can cause serious illness or death. Successful immunization programs have helped eradicate smallpox from the globe, nearly eradicated polio, and markedly reduced such diseases as tetanus, measles, mumps, and rubella. Nevertheless, many vaccine preventable diseases persist in the United States and around the world, and vaccination rates are not as high as public health officials would like them to be. 

Vaccines have been to be among the most safe and effective therapies we possess. They save lives by preventing outbreaks of disease and even protect those who cannot be vaccinated. Despite all this, vaccine acceptance has declined. The seriousness of many vaccine preventable diseases has faded from collective memory, and some people fear the rare or imagined adverse effects of vaccines more than the diseases they are meant to prevent. Some parents opt not to fully vaccinate their children. As a result, the United States is seeing a return of outbreaks from vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and pertussis, diseases that had largely disappeared a decade ago. Furthermore, similar unfounded fears and multiple systemic barriers consistently lead to poor uptake of recommended vaccines in adults, significantly limiting the full potential of vaccine benefits in this group as well.

At the Center for Immunization Research and Education (CIRE), our mission and purpose is to address concerning trends in vaccine coverage through education and research and to find ways to improve regional vaccine acceptance and immunization rates in both children and adults.  Our goal is to have no one in our region suffer from a vaccine-preventable diseases.

The CIRE is housed within the NDSU Department of Public Health.