CDC recommends that high-risk people avoid contact with pigs and swine barns at fairs after four cases of variant virus infections are linked to pig exposure
On August 12, CDC published
4 Variant Virus Infections Linked to Pig Exposures. Selected portions of this report are reprinted below.
Four human infections with influenza viruses that normally circulate in
swine (swine influenza) were reported by CDC this week. When swine influenza
viruses are detected in people they are called “variant” viruses and are
designated with a letter v at the end of the virus subtype. The four human
infections were caused by H3N2v viruses in Ohio and Michigan. All four
patients reported attending fairs where they had exposure to pigs during the
week preceding illness onset. Pigs at the fairs have reportedly tested
positive for swine influenza A (H3N2) infection.
Some people are at high risk of developing serious illness from variant virus infections, just as they are from seasonal influenza. This includes young children, people with underlying health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart disease, pregnant women, and people who are 65 and older. In order to reduce the possible risk of serious illness to people posed by interactions between people and pigs at fairs, CDC recommends that people at high risk for serious flu complications avoid pigs and swine barns at fairs.
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California Department of Public Health issues health advisory to vaccinate men who have sex with men in southern California and HIV-infected people statewide with MenACWY to contain outbreak of meningococcal disease
Since March, 24 cases of meningococcal disease, including two fatal cases, have been confirmed in Southern California, primarily among men who have sex with men (MSM). In response, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued a clinician health advisory. The recommendations are reprinted below.
CDPH advises that healthcare providers recommend MenACWY vaccination for:
- All MSM residing in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties, and the City of Long Beach
- MSM residing outside of these jurisdictions who plan to travel to
Los Angeles or Orange Counties or the City of Long Beach (to be effective,
vaccination should occur ≥2 weeks prior to travel)
- All HIV-infected persons statewide
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IAC Spotlight! IAC enrolls eight new birthing institutions into its Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll; four previously honored institutions qualify for additional periods
The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) is pleased to announce that eight new institutions have been accepted into its Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll. The birthing institutions are listed below with their reported hepatitis B birth dose coverage rates in parentheses.
- Bradford Regional Medical Center, Bradford, PA (97%)
- Guam Memorial Hospital, Mangilao, GU (100%)
- NewYork–Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospital (95%)
- Othello Community Hospital, Othello, WA (95%)
- Schuylkill Medical Center, Pottsville, PA (91%)
- Seymour Hospital, Seymour, TX (100%)
- UTMB Health Angleton–Danbury Campus, Angleton, TX (98%)
- William Newton Hospital, Winfield, KS (94%)
In addition, the following four institutions are being recognized for two or more years:
- A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital, Oneonta, NY (95%)
- Guam Memorial Hospital, Mangilao, GU (100%)
- Lewis County General Hospital, Lowville, NY (92%)
- Oswego Hospital, Oswego, NY (94%)
Note: Guam Memorial Hospital applied at one time for five year periods—from
1/1/2011 through 12/31/2015—and achieved 100% coverage ALL FIVE YEARS!
The Honor Roll now includes 279 birthing institutions from 36 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Eighty-two institutions have qualified for two years, 25 institutions have qualified three times, one institution has qualified four times, and one institution has qualified five times.
The Honor Roll is a key part of IAC’s major initiative urging the nation’s
hospitals to Give birth to the end of Hep B. Hospitals and birthing centers are recognized for attaining high coverage rates for administering hepatitis B vaccine at birth and meeting specific additional criteria. The initiative urges qualifying healthcare organizations to apply for the Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll online.
To be included in the Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll, a birthing institution must have: (1) reported a coverage rate of 90 percent or greater, over a 12-month period, for administering hepatitis B vaccine before hospital discharge to all newborns, including those whose parents refuse vaccination, and (2) implemented specific written policies, procedures, and protocols to protect all newborns from hepatitis B virus infection prior to hospital discharge.
Honorees are also awarded an 8.5" x 11" color certificate suitable for framing and their acceptance is announced to IAC
Express’s approximately 50,000 readers.
Please visit the Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll web page that lists these institutions and their exceptional efforts to protect infants from perinatal hepatitis B transmission.
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Hepatitis A outbreak in Hawaii causes long wait times for vaccination
As of August 17, 206 cases of hepatitis A have been confirmed in Hawaii. The outbreak has been identified to have originated at Genki Sushi restaurants on Oahu and Kauai. As reported in The Daily Progress, residents getting vaccinated in response to the outbreak have experienced long wait times and occasional shortage of vaccine supply.
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CDC updates Twitter account, replacing @CDCIZLearn with @DrNancyM_CDC
CDC has replaced its @CDCIZLearn Twitter account with @DrNancyM_CDC.
The new account will feature Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC’s National
Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), providing the latest
information and news about immunizations, outbreaks, and NCIRD research. We
encourage you to #VaxWithMe by following @DrNancyM_CDC. Note: @DrNancyM_CDC replaces @CDCIZLearn, so if you were following @CDCIZLearn, you will be automatically redirected.
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Only one week left! The 20% discount on record cards, schedules, DVDs, and books on Shop IAC ends soon!
As announced in the August 4 Special Edition of IAC Express, during August, National Immunization Awareness Month, all items in Shop IAC
are 20% off! All you need to do to get the 20% discount on your entire order
is to enter the coupon code “IAC20” into the Coupon Code box on the Cart
Contents page.
Check out Shop IAC to order schedules, record cards, handbooks, and more during the month of August!
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IAC HANDOUTS
IAC posts revised parent handout by Dr. Ari Brown titled "Clear Answers and
Smart Advice About Your Baby’s Shots"
Ari Brown, MD, FAAP, recently updated her handout for parents titled Clear
Answers and Smart Advice About Your Baby’s Shots. In private practice since 1995, Dr. Brown is perhaps best known as the coauthor of the 411 parenting book series titled Expecting 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Pregnancy, Baby 411, and Toddler 411 (Windsor Peak Press). Clear
Answers and Smart Advice About Your Baby’s Shots is an excerpt from Baby 411 that answers parents' questions about vaccines, especially related to misinformation such as whether vaccines cause autism.
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IAC's Handouts for Patients & Staff web section offers healthcare professionals and the public more than 250 FREE English-language handouts (many also available in translation), which we encourage website users to print out, copy, and distribute widely.
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IAC updates two influenza handouts for parents: “Keep your kids safe—get them
vaccinated every fall or winter!” and "Don’t take chances with your family’s
health—make sure you all get vaccinated against influenza every year!"
IAC recently updated the following two handouts that encourage parents to get
their children and themselves vaccinated against influenza. The changes to the
pieces reflect the ACIP decision to not recommend the use of nasal spray
influenza vaccine (FluMist) during the 2016–2017 influenza season.
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WORLD NEWS
WHO reports on conclusions and recommendations of the Immunization and Vaccine-Related Implementation Research Advisory Committee
The World Health Organization (WHO) published
Immunization and Vaccine-Related Implementation Research Advisory Committee
(IVIR-AC): summary of conclusions and recommendations, 30 May–1 June 2016
meeting in the August 19 issue of its Weekly Epidemiological Record. The theme of the meeting was "Research to minimize barriers and improve coverage of vaccines currently in use."
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CDC publishes two online resources for parents to encourage childhood vaccination
CDC published two listicle-style resources for parents,
Six Things YOU Need to Know about Vaccines and
14 Diseases You Almost Forgot About (Thanks to Vaccines). The two resources include information about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases.
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ShotByShot.org adds “Megan’s Story” to its collection of stories about
vaccine-preventable diseases
ShotbyShot is a program of the California Immunization Coalition that features a collection of videos and written stories about people affected by vaccine-preventable diseases. Watch the newly posted Megan’s
Story to hear about a family’s struggle caring for their 10-month-old son
with measles who was exposed in the waiting room at his doctor’s office.
Consider promoting Megan’s Story and other stories on social media, during
health events, or in waiting rooms to put a face on vaccine-preventable
diseases.
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EDUCATION AND TRAINING
National HPV Vaccination Roundtable to present webinar about best practices on August 29
The
National HPV Vaccination Roundtable
will host a webinar titled "National Conference on Best and Promising
Practices for Increasing HPV Vaccination" on August 29, from 10:00 a.m.–4:30
p.m. (ET).
Weekly CDC webinar series on "The Pink Book" chapter topics continues through September 21; register now
CDC is presenting a 15-part webinar series to provide a chapter-by-chapter overview of the 13th edition of Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (also known as "The Pink Book"). This is a live series of one-hour webinars that started June 1. Recordings of sessions will be available online after each webinar. All sessions begin at 12:00 p.m. (ET). Information about receiving continuing education credit will be available for each session after it is archived. CE credit may be available for up to a year after the date it was live.
Registration and more information is available on CDC's Pink Book Webinar Series web page.
Download Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Order Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
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CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS
Video presentations from the June 2016 ACIP now available online; register now for October ACIP meeting
ACIP recently posted the video footage and presentation slides from
the ACIP meeting held on June 22–23.
ACIP will hold its next meeting on October 19–20 in Atlanta. To attend the
meeting, ACIP attendees (participants and visitors) must register online. The
registration deadline for non-U.S. citizens is September 28; for U.S. citizens,
it's October 10. Registration is not required to watch the live webcast of the
meeting.
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Washington State Immunization Summit to be held April 26, 2017
Registration is now available for the Washington State Immunization Summit. The summit will be held April 26, 2017, in Seattle. Get more information at the conference website.
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ASK THE EXPERTS
Question of the Week
When not given on the same day, is the interval between yellow fever and MMR vaccines 4 weeks (28 days) or 30 days? I have seen the yellow fever and live virus vaccine recommendations published both ways.
The General Recommendations on Immunization makes the generic recommendation that live parenterally or nasally administered vaccines not given on the same day should be separated by at least 28 days. The CDC travel health website recommends that yellow fever vaccine and other parenteral or nasal live vaccines should be separated by at least 30 days if possible.
About IAC's Question of the Week
Each week, IAC Express highlights a new, topical, or
important-to-reiterate Q&A. This feature is a cooperative venture between IAC
and CDC. William L. Atkinson, MD, MPH, IAC's associate director for immunization
education, chooses a new Q&A to feature every week from a set of Q&As prepared
by experts at CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
We hope you enjoy this new feature and find it helpful when dealing with difficult real-life scenarios in your vaccination practice. Please encourage your healthcare professional colleagues to sign up to receive IAC Express at www.immunize.org/subscribe.
If you have a question for the CDC immunization experts, you can email them directly at nipinfo@cdc.gov. There is no charge for this service.
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