By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

Overall, young children in the U.S. maintained high vaccination rates in 2012, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

But researchers also said there were 159 reported cases of measles between Jan. 1 and Aug. 24 this year — a higher number than usual — and gaps in immunization appear to be to blame.

The new data were published in two reports included in the latest edition of the health agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

In the first of the two papers, CDC researchers analyzed responses from the National Immunization Survey, which monitors vaccine coverage among children 19 to 35 months of age. The federal government targets 90% childhood vaccination rates. Nationwide, Americans are hitting or exceeding that goal for measles, mumps and rubella; for polio; for hepatitis B; and for varicella (the virus that causes chicken pox). Americans missed targets for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and for Hib and PCV vaccines.

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