Shirley Klein, M.D., FAAP, named 2015 CDC Childhood Immunization Champion

Shirley Klein, M.D., FAAP, is Delaware’s 2015 winner of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Childhood Immunization Champion Award, given jointly by the CDC Foundation and the CDC.

Dr. Klein is an attending physician in the pediatric practice program at the Rocco A. Abessinio Family Wilmington Health Center. She has worked for Christiana Care, mostly in outpatient pediatrics, for 32 years. Dr. Klein will be retiring this July.

Dr. Klein’s efforts to educate patients and improve immunization coverage have contributed to vaccination rates in her practice that are higher than the national and state average. As the immunization representative for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Delaware Chapter and the AAP representative on the State of Delaware Vaccine practice at the state level.

Over the course of her career, Dr. Klein has seen the difference vaccines have made in protecting the health of children. During her pediatric residency in 1969-1971, she admitted at least one child per week with Haemophilus influenzae Type B meningitis. Because there is now a vaccine to protect children from Hib disease, this is now a rare occurrence, with most cases in unvaccinated children.