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Issue 1269: October 12, 2016
Ask the Experts—Question of the Week: I have an 8-month-old patient who is traveling internationally. The infant needs...read more
TOP STORIES
IAC HANDOUTS
FEATURED RESOURCES
JOURNAL ARTICLES AND NEWSLETTERS
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
TOP STORIES
New! October 2016 issue of Needle Tips is available online
The October 2016 issue of Needle Tips is now online.
Click on the image below to download the entire October issue of Needle Tips (18-page, 8.3 MB PDF).
Access the Table of Contents (HTML) to download individual sections or pages.
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If you would like to receive immediate email notification whenever new issues of Needle Tips or Vaccinate Adults are released, visit our Subscribe to IAC page to sign up.
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CDC reports on vaccination coverage of children 19–35 months old during 2015
in MMWR
CDC published
Vaccination Coverage Among Children Aged 19–35 Months—United States, 2015 in the October 7 issue of MMWR(pages
1065–71). A summary made available to the press is reprinted below.
According to the 2015 National Immunization Survey, the majority of parents
are vaccinating their young children against potentially serious diseases.
Nationally, there were no significant changes in vaccination coverage among
children ages 19–35 months for routinely recommended childhood vaccinations in
2015. However, opportunities for improvement remain. Lower coverage continues
for vaccinations recommended during the second year of life. National
vaccination coverage was also lower among children living in poverty and those
living in rural areas, and there were widespread variations in coverage by
state.
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CDC reports on vaccination coverage of kindergarten students during 2015–16 in MMWR
CDC published
Vaccination Coverage Among Children in Kindergarten—United States, 2015–16
School Year in the October 7 issue of MMWR (pages
1057–64). A summary made available to the press is reprinted below.
Nationally, for the 2015–16 school year, most kindergartners are up-to-date
on recommended vaccinations, and median exemption levels continue to remain
low. CDC collected data to report for the first time the prevalence of
children who were neither documented as fully vaccinated nor exempt. These
students were enrolled in kindergarten under a grace period or provisional
enrollment. A median of 2.0% of kindergartners were within a grace period or
were provisionally enrolled at the time of the assessment. Immunization
programs, in cooperation with schools, can improve vaccination coverage by
ensuring all kindergartners are vaccinated during the grace period or
provisional enrollment. Consistent, high coverage rates at the national level
significantly reduce illness and death from vaccine-preventable diseases.
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Six healthcare organizations join IAC's Influenza Vaccination Honor Roll for mandatory healthcare worker vaccination
Five hundred ninety-six organizations are now enrolled in IAC's Influenza Vaccination Honor Roll. The honor roll recognizes hospitals, medical practices, professional organizations, health departments, and government entities that have taken a stand for patient safety by implementing mandatory influenza vaccination policies for healthcare personnel.
Since August 17, when IAC Express last reported on the Influenza Vaccination Honor Roll, six additional healthcare organizations have been enrolled.
IAC urges qualifying healthcare organizations to apply.
Newly added healthcare organizations, hospitals, government agencies, and medical practices
- Mercy Health, Youngstown, OH
- Driscoll Children's Hospital, Corpus Christi, TX
- Manchester Community Health Center, Manchester, NH
- Memorial Medical Center, Las Cruces, NM
- Southern New Hampshire Health, Nashua, NH
- St. Croix Regional Medical Center, St. Croix Falls, WI
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World Pneumonia Day to be held on November 12; related social media toolkit released
The 8th annual World Pneumonia Day will be held on November 12. World Pneumonia Day was established in 2009 to:
- Raise awareness about pneumonia, the world’s leading killer of children
under the age of five
- Promote interventions to protect against, prevent, and treat pneumonia
- Generate action to combat pneumonia
Pneumonia is one of the most solvable problems in global health, yet a child dies from pneumonia every 20 seconds. Visit the World Pneumonia Day website to see how you can help in the effort to end child pneumonia worldwide. An advocacy toolkit for 2016 is available on StopPneumonia.org.
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IAC HANDOUTS
IAC updates its vaccine storage and handling handout titled "Vaccine Handling Tips"
IAC recently posted an updated and redesigned version of its resource for healthcare professionals, Vaccine Handling Tips. Changes were made to revise the lower limit on storage of refrigerated vaccines from 35 degrees Fahrenheit to 36 degrees.
Related Links
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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ShotByShot.org adds “Cecilia’s Story” to its collection of stories about
people with vaccine-preventable diseases
Read the newly posted Cecilia's Story, the story of a healthy young woman who died from influenza last spring, written by her husband. The story is a part of the ShotByShot collection of stories about people with 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. Consider promoting Cecilia's Story and other such stories on social media, during health events, or in waiting rooms to put a face on vaccine-preventable diseases.
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CDC releases "Dear Colleague" letter for 2016–17 influenza season
CDC recently released the following resource for the 2016–17 influenza season:
- A "Dear Colleague" letter for healthcare professionals from CDC and partners that lists five updates in the season's influenza recommendations from ACIP signed by several professional societies
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JOURNAL ARTICLES AND NEWSLETTERS
CDC and WHO report on use of cell phones for real-time monitoring of vaccination campaign in Nepal
CDC published
Real-Time Monitoring of Vaccination Campaign Performance Using Mobile
Phones—Nepal, 2016 in the October 7 issue of MMWR
(pages 1072–76). On the same day, WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record published a similar article titled
Real-time monitoring of vaccination campaign performance using mobile
phones—Nepal, 2016. A CDC press summary is reprinted below.
In 2012, the Global Vaccine Action Plan established a goal to achieve
measles and rubella elimination in five of the six World Health Organization
Regions by 2020. Measles elimination strategies include achieving and
maintaining ≥95% coverage with two doses of measles-containing vaccine and
implementing mass vaccination campaigns in settings where routine two-dose
coverage is low or where high-risk subpopulations exist. To ensure campaign
quality and achieve ≥95% coverage, rapid convenience monitoring is used during
or immediately after campaigns. Achieving measles and rubella elimination
worldwide will be an important milestone in public health and every effort in
this direction, including vaccination campaigns, should be of high quality and
improved with innovations. One way to improve the quality of vaccination
campaigns is to increase the use of mobile phones for monitoring campaign
implementation with faster data transmission, analysis, decision-making, and
increased accountability among levels of the health system.
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MMWR releases update about influenza mortality reporting
CDC published Notice to Readers: Update to Reporting of Pneumonia and Influenza Mortality in the October 7 issue of MMWR (page 1088). An excerpt is reprinted below.
Beginning in the publication for the week ending October 8, 2016 (week 40), data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Mortality Surveillance System will replace the information reported in Table III, and the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System (122 CMRS) will be retired. The NCHS Mortality Surveillance System provides improvements in the data, including reports by the week of death and a consistent pneumonia and influenza (P&I) case definition across all sites. These improvements, along with recent and continuing increases in the timeliness of death certificate data, have led CDC to update the P&I mortality surveillance platform from the 122 CMRS to the NCHS Mortality Surveillance System.
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EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Reminder: Archived webinar of Dr. William L. Atkinson presenting “Adolescent
Immunization: Where We Are Now and How We Can Do Better” now available for
viewing on IAC website; slide set and speaker notes also available
On July 28, Dr. William L. Atkinson, MD, MPH, IAC’s associate director for
immunization education, presented a webinar titled “Adolescent Immunization:
Where We Are Now and How We Can Do Better.” Dr. Atkinson reviewed the
recommendations for each adolescent vaccine, provided strategies to improve
coverage rates in this population, and listed available resources to assist
immunization providers in their efforts to improve coverage rates.
It is now available on the home page of IAC’s main website at www.immunize.org.
To view it, scroll down to the middle of the page to Dr. Atkinson’s photo and
click on the link.
In addition, the slide presentation is and speakers notes are available on
IAC’s PowerPoint Slide Set web page. At this link, you can request the full PowerPoint slide set and speakers notes to create your own adolescent immunization presentation.
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ASK THE EXPERTS
Question of the Week
I have an 8-month-old patient who is traveling internationally. The infant needs immune globulin (IG) for hepatitis A protection as well as MMR vaccine. The family is leaving in 11 days. Can I give the IG and the MMR vaccine simultaneously?
IG may contain antibodies to measles, mumps, and rubella that could reduce the effectiveness of MMR vaccine. The best course of action is to administer the MMR vaccine and defer the IG. Once the vaccine is given, an antibody-containing blood product like IG can be administered two weeks later. While it may be difficult to get this product administered before leaving, you are better off than if IG were administered first, as a 3-month interval is recommended between IG and MMR.
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 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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