Since 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been the major financial supporter of IAC for the purpose of educating health professionals about U.S. vaccine recommendations. CDC recognized IAC's accomplishments in 1997 by awarding it their prestigious Partners in Public Health Award for efforts "instrumental in achieving high levels of routine infant hepatitis B immunization."

Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals at every level of the immunization community, including both public and private sectors, rely on many of the following projects in their daily work to increase immunization rates across the life span.

Website for Health Professionals www.immunize.org
Launched in 1994, one of the earliest websites devoted to immunization, www.immunize.org is the largest resource for practical, user-friendly immunization information available today, serving over 9,000 visitors per day. All IAC print materials are available free of charge, and users are encouraged to reproduce and redistribute the materials. This website also makes available all Vaccine Information Statements (VISs) published in the United States in up to 40 languages and some alternative formats. In the past twelve months, users downloaded over 5 million ready-to-copy (PDF) documents from the website.

Immunization Action Coalition websites are maintained by IAC staff. As important content (e.g., recommendations from CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) becomes available, website materials are reviewed and updated. IAC's Executive Director Deborah Wexler, MD, and Diane Peterson, Associate Director for Immunization Projects, develop content for print materials and periodicals, which are posted on both websites. Occasionally, special guest authors provide print materials for the website. All materials and web pages are dated and reviewed on a regular schedule, at least annually.

IAC makes daily additions and updates to the content of www.immunize.org. In the past two years, we completed a revision of the design of the following major sections: Needle Tips, Vaccinate Adults, Vaccinate Women, IAC Express, Unprotected People, VISs, Ask the Experts, Journal Articles, Print Materials, and Directory of Immunization Resources. We created a new section called Vaccine Policy and Licensing which contains redesigned pages for ACIP recommendations, AAP policy statements, FDA-approved package inserts, IOM publications, and WHO position papers. We also reorganized sections about autism, thimerosal, and other vaccine safety issues under a new section called Vaccine Concerns. We added a New Releases web section, accessed from a prominent link at the top of the home page so visitors can easily find the newest recommendations, licensures, and resources. Another prominent link brings visitors to What's New at IAC, providing a chronological list of all new and updated IAC materials on the website. Another new area of the website, Vaccines and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the News, provides links to news reports, features, opinion pieces, and editorials about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases that have been published in the news media.

IAC expert staff continually review the recent immunization literature and select articles dealing with practical topics such as parental concerns about vaccines, providing vaccination services, immunization exemptions, and many others, and present links to those articles on the website. These selected articles, currently numbering more than 3,500, provide IAC's professional audience with the ability to quickly keep up-to-date with the literature, finding the latest articles on topics of importance to them.

IAC staff maintain and post (www.immunize.org/laws) a roster of state mandates for various vaccines (e.g., varicella, PCV) and policy issues (e.g., states that authorize pharmacists to administer vaccines). This information, obtained from news clippings, health department newsletters, and direct from state staff, is validated by checking with legislative websites and contacts with program managers. As a result, it is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date listings of state immunization requirements.

This online resource guide highlights the best in reference texts, journals, email news services, listservs, guidebooks, parents, books, and more, available from government agencies, professional organizations, nonprofit groups, and industry. It is available free online at www.immunize.org/resources.

Chiefly as a result of the thousands of authoritative links to the website from across the Web, immunize.org continues its longstanding high ranking in search engines. For example, it is currently ranked #1 on Google when using the word "immunize" and #6 when using the word "immunization."

Website for the Public and Health Professionals www.vaccineinformation.org
Developed in consultation with CDC, this website for patients, parents, providers, and the media presents straightforward information about vaccine-preventable diseases and their vaccines. Launched in August 2002 with sole funding from CDC, it currently serves more than 5,000 visitors per day. The website contains information about vaccine safety and the overall importance of immunization; it currently features 261 vaccine-preventable disease photos and 115 video clips. The site also has links to VISs, immunization and disease statistics, state immunization laws, state health department websites, and topics of special interest.

Online Database of Immunization Coalitions www.izcoalitions.org
Launched in 2001, this website provides access to an interactive online database of local, state, regional, national, and international immunization coalitions. The database allows interested health professionals, parents, immunization advocates, and others to contact immunization coalitions for resources, ideas, or volunteering. Currently, 186 immunization coalitions have entered information about their structure and activities.

Publications
Needle Tips (NT)
From its first issue in 1994 through the Winter 2008 issue, IAC distributed more than 4.25 million paper copies of NT--as many as 235,000 copies per issue, delivered to virtually every pediatrician, family physician, and pediatric nurse practitioner nationwide, as well as to every local and state health department. A move to online-only publication will occur in the spring of 2009. NT is a 24-page, CDC-reviewed publication that comes out twice each year. Frontline healthcare professionals rely on NT for its up-to-date, practice-oriented information on the recommendations for childhood, adolescent, and adult immunization. NT is the only publication of its kind in the United States. Current and past issues are available on our website at www.immunize.org/nt.

Vaccinate Adults (VA)
Like NT, VA will convert to online publication in 2009. It was first published in 1997, and more than 2.8 million paper copies have been distributed to an average of 160,000 adult medicine specialists per issue. VA is a 12 page, semiannual publication targeted at internal medicine specialists, cardiologists, pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists, occupational medicine specialists, nephrologists, and geriatricians. Every issue is CDC-reviewed and provides succinctly written descriptions of adult immunization recommendations. Current and past issues are available on our website at www.immunize.org/va.

Vaccinate Women (VW)
Since 2002, IAC has published eight issues and distributed more than 300,000 printed copies of this 12-page periodical with the cooperation and financial assistance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Each issue is currently distributed to more than 50,000 ACOG members, all OB/Gyn residents, all health departments, and other women's health specialists. Current and past issues are available at www.immunize.org/vw.

IAC Express (IACX)
Currently emailed free of charge to more than 30,000 opt-in subscribers every Monday, IACX provides up-to-date information about FDA vaccine approvals, new ACIP and AAP vaccine recommendations, newly released Vaccine Information Statements, new immunization resources and current events, and journal articles. Front-line health professionals, including local and state health departments and others, rely on IAC Express for the critical information they need in their day-to-day work. The current issue as well as the more than 750 issues published since IACX's beginning in 1997 are available online at www.immunize.org/express.

Unprotected People (UP) Reports
Since 1998, IAC has collected and published personal stories and case reports of people who have suffered or died from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). We believe that UP reports are extremely important in providing parents, the media, and clinicians the information they need to help balance discussions on the value of vaccines. These reports can be particularly effective in countering stories claiming harm from vaccines. Currently, 95 reports are available online at www.immunize.org/reports.

Print Materials
IAC is the most relied upon source of CDC-reviewed immunization materials for health professionals and their patients, providing over 5 million downloads in the past year. We create, update, and distribute more than 200 separate educational pieces including such widely used and reprinted items as:

• Summary of Recommendations for Childhood and Adolescent Immunization
• Summary of Recommendations for Adult Immunization
• Screening Questionnaire for Child and Teen Immunization
• Screening Questionnaire for Adult Immunization
• How to Administer IM and SC Injections
• Immunizations for Babies: A Guide for Parents
• When do Children and Teens Need Vaccinations?
• Vaccine Administration Record for Children and Teens
• Hepatitis A, B, C: Learn the Differences

CDC's 2008 The Pink Book (Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases) includes 13 reprinted IAC pieces as well as links to IAC's print materials resources. All educational materials are available online free of charge at www.immunize.org/printmaterials. During 2007-08, we translated 20 of our patient/parent pieces into Spanish and some into six additional languages. Currently, we maintain more than 80 translations of our educational print materials.

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Immunization Techniques: Safe, Effective, Caring
IAC collaborated with the California Department of Health Services, Immunization Branch, in developing this video (also available in DVD format) that teaches best practices for administering intramuscular and subcutaneous vaccines to infants, children, and adults. It is designed for use as a "hands‑on" instructional program for new staff, as well as a refresher course for those who are experienced in vaccine administration. We have distributed more than 20,000 copies of Immunization Techniques: Safe, Effective, Caring in VHS format and almost 3,000 copies in DVD format. This resource can be ordered online at www.immunize.org/iztech.

Personal Immunization Record Cards
In collaboration with CDC, and with input from several state health departments, IAC has created three versions of a personal immunization record card for recording vaccination histories. Versions are available for children, adults, and across-the-lifespan use. To date, more than 5.6 million adult cards, 100,000 child/teen cards, and approximately 200,000 lifetime record cards have been distributed.

Laminated Immunization Schedules
In March 2006, IAC began producing durable versions of CDC's Recommended Immunization Schedules (for children, adolescents, and adults) for convenient use in medical practices. IAC's copies of the schedules are printed on 80# cardstock, laminated for heavy-duty use, and printed in vivid colors for easy reading. We have distributed more than 170,000 laminated schedules.