The Immunization Platform for 16-year-olds Is Easily Overlooked — Here Are Some Resources to Help!
October 2017
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| The Immunization Platform for 16-year-olds Is Easily Overlooked — Here Are Some Resources to Help! | |
| Published October 2017 | |
| To remind healthcare professionals that age 16 is an officially recommended time for an immunization visit, ACIP highlighted vaccines at this age when it published the 2017 Recommended Immunization Schedule for Children and Adolescents 18 Years or Younger. By adding gray shading to the “16 years” column heading on the official schedule, ACIP emphasized the importance of this age platform, on a par with the previously established vaccination platforms at 4–6 years and 11–12 years (also gray shaded). The vaccines needed at 16 years of age are MenACWY #2, MenB and influenza, and, if not already up to date, HPV catch-up.
To assist providers in communicating the important vaccines recommended for 16-year-olds, the Immunization Action Coalition and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) have partnered to develop a new one-page handout titled “You’re 16… We recommend these vaccines for you!” that can be given to teen patients or their parents. This patient education sheet utilizes a colorful, easy-to-understand format to describe the vaccines recommended at this age, as well as the impacts of the diseases the vaccines protect against along with the recommended number and timing of doses. This is the first patient educational tool designed specifically to help inform patients and their parents about the important immunization visit for 16-year-olds. Immunization platform for 16-year-olds
Clinical tools
Additional immunization resources for adolescents and their parents
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