New clinical resources developed by Immunize.org to help you implement CDC’s universal adult hepatitis B screening and vaccination recommendations. Download them today!
The team at Immunize.org developed two new clinical resources to help healthcare providers implement CDC’s universal adult hepatitis B screening and vaccination recommendations. The one-page document highlights the basics of the two important steps every adult can take to protect themselves from liver disease and cancer. Share with any adult who has not yet completed both steps. The second clinical resource dives into practical questions clinical staff raise when preparing to implement both screening and vaccination programs. If you vaccinate adults, please download and share these today. Do your part to eliminate hepatitis B. New handouts include:
 
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CDC releases new Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) for RSV vaccine for older adults and updated multi-vaccine VIS for children before the first birthday Immunize.org posted two new Vaccine Information Statements (VISs), published by CDC. The new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine VIS reflects the 2023 ACIP recommendation for RSV vaccination for adults age 60 years or older using shared clinical decision-making. The updated version of “Your Child’s First Vaccines” VIS for children provides information on diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus, hepatitis B, pneumococcal, and poliovirus vaccines, including 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20) as an option for vaccination.
 
Immunize.org updated its corresponding reference documents related to the use of VISs, You Must Provide Patients with Vaccine Information Statements (VISs)—It's Federal Law! and Dates of Current Vaccine Information Statements (VISs)
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August is National Immunization Awareness Month; promote vaccination with helpful resources for all ages August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). This annual observance highlights the efforts to protect people of all ages against vaccine-preventable diseases through on-time vaccination. This year, NIAM serves as a focal point to get back on track with routine vaccines.
During NIAM, encourage your patients to schedule appointments to ensure they are up to date on annual exams and recommended vaccines. Research shows that healthcare providers remain the most trusted source of vaccine information for parents and patients.
CDC’s NIAM web page includes two toolkits, one for reaching healthcare professionals and the other for reaching parents and patients. Each includes key messages, sample social media content, and educational resources. CDC encourages its partners to share these messages and resources throughout August using the hashtag #ivax2protect. Stay tuned for more resources to be released throughout the coming weeks.
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“Meningococcal ACWY Vaccine for College Students”: watch the 1-minute answer, part of the Ask the Experts Video Series on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram Immunize.org’s social media program highlights our educational resources for today’s vaccinators. This week, our featured episode from the Ask the Experts Video Series is Meningococcal ACWY Vaccine for College Students. This is available on our YouTube channel, along with our full collection of quick video answers to popular Ask the Experts questions.
Our social media channels feature our most popular printable resources, our Ask the Experts Video Series, and announcements important to frontline vaccinators. Like, follow, and share Immunize.org’s social media accounts. Encourage colleagues and others interested in vaccination to do likewise:
Immunize.org’s Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll recognizes 580 institutions, including two new honorees
Immunize.org is pleased to welcome two new institutions into its Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll, for a total of 580 honorees. The birthing institutions are listed below with their reported hepatitis B birth dose coverage rates in parentheses.
- Ascension St. Mary – Chicago, Chicago, IL (99%)
- Good Samaritan Medical Center, Lafayette, CO (92%)
Several institutions are being recognized for qualifying for an additional year:
- Dukes Memorial Hospital, Peru, IN (90%) (2 years)
- Cape Coral Hospital, Cape Coral, FL (90%) (3 years)
- Logansport Memorial Hospital, Logansport, IN (94%) (3 years)
- Guthrie Corning Hospital, Corning, NY (93%) (6 years)
- Shannon Medical Center South Campus, San Angelo, TX (92%) (7 years)
- Oneida Health, Oneida, NY (93%) (8 years)
The Honor Roll includes 580 birthing institutions from 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, and our U.S. military base in England.
The Honor Roll is a key part of Immunize.org’s 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 for hepatitis B vaccine at birth and meeting additional criteria. To learn whether your organization qualifies and to access the application form, please see Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll online.
Honorees receive an 8.5" x 11" color certificate suitable for printing and framing. And their acceptance is announced through Immunize.org’s social media channels and to IZ Express’s 54,000+ readers.
Please visit the Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll web page that lists these institutions and celebrates their vigorous efforts to protect infants from perinatal hepatitis B transmission.
Related Immunize.org Resources
Spotlight: Check out the variety of staff training resources curated by Immunize.org 
In this week's Spotlight, we summarize resources at Immunize.org that focus on staff training and in-services.
Key Vaccination Resources for Healthcare Professionals includes an annotated list of key training, education, and reference materials for people who vaccinate or oversee vaccination clinics.
Skills Checklist for Vaccine Administration is a tool to help supervisors assess staff members' skills.
Clinic Tools main page offers a one-stop source of practical information for vaccination providers. You will find "how-to" information about providing vaccinations in a medical office or non-traditional setting.
Clinic Tools: Storage and Handling main page features checklists, "Do Not Unplug" signs, how to avoid errors, temperature logs, storage troubleshooting records, and more. You'll find links to CDC's storage and handling training tools, along with other partner resources.
Clinic Tools: Administering Vaccines main page offers handouts on appropriate injection techniques, information on how to properly deliver intramuscular and subcutaneous injections, medical management of adverse reactions, summaries of vaccine recommendations, and how to use vaccines needing reconstitution.
These recent articles convey the potential risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the importance of vaccination.
Immunize.org Pages and Handouts
Immunize.org updates its “Ask the Experts” web page on hepatitis B vaccine
Immunize.org recently updated its popular Ask the Experts: Hepatitis B web page to reflect CDC’s universal adult hepatitis B screening and vaccination recommendations, including new questions and answers featured in the new Immunize.org clinical resource described in our top story. Take this opportunity to refresh your knowledge by reviewing the clinical questions and answers available from Immunize.org on these topics.
Immunize.org’s Ask the Experts main page leads you to 30 web pages on various topics with more than 1,200 common or challenging questions and answers about vaccines and their administration. Immunize.org’s team of experts includes Kelly L. Moore, MD, MPH (team lead), Carolyn B. Bridges, MD, FACP, and Iyabode Beysolow, MD, MPH.
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Immunize.org updates its resource for healthcare professionals: “Don't Be Guilty of These Preventable Errors in Vaccine Administration!” Immunize.org recently updated its resource for healthcare professionals: Don't Be Guilty of These Preventable Errors in Vaccine Administration! Changes were made to incorporate PCV15 and PCV20 vaccines, the alternate Menveo one-vial liquid formulation, and the CDC PneumoRecs VaxAdvisor app. The document includes a QR code linking users to the PDF of the current document.
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Vaccine Information Statements
Confirm that your Vaccine Information Statements are up to date: Immunize.org updates “You Must Provide Patients with Vaccine Information Statements (VISs) – It’s Federal Law!” and “Dates of Current Vaccine Information Statements (VISs)”
Immunize.org updated two provider resources with the publication date of the new Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccine VIS and updated Your Child’s First Vaccines VIS dated July 24, 2023.
 
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Unity Consortium releases FACTsinnated podcast titled “COVID-19: Then and Now with Dr. Walter A. Orenstein”
Unity Consortium posted a new entry in its FACTSinnated podcast series: COVID-19: Then and Now with Dr. Walter A. Orenstein. A description from the Unity web page appears below.
Dive into a new episode of FACTSinnated to hear insights from Dr. Walter Orenstein, professor and Associate Director of Emory Vaccine Center, on the long-term impacts of COVID-19 and the importance of the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters for adolescent health.
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Explore the www.Give2MenACWY.org website to increase coverage for the MenACWY booster and other adolescent vaccinations Immunize.org's www.Give2MenACWY.org website promotes the importance of adolescent vaccination, including the recommended MenACWY vaccine booster dose at age 16. Many teens are behind on vaccines because of the pandemic, so vaccine outreach is more important than ever.
Materials on this colorful website for healthcare professionals incorporate the 2020 ACIP meningococcal vaccine recommendations and coverage statistics from CDC’s National Immunization Survey–Teen (NIS–Teen). One particularly popular resource on the site is the updated Algorithm for MenACWY Immunization in Adolescents 11 through 18 Years of Age.
The website is divided into five easy-to-access sections:
The site also categorizes materials according to whether they are primarily of interest to providers, to adolescents, or to parents.
Visit Give2MenACWY.org and enjoy browsing (and deploying) its bountiful resources.
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"Failure to Complete Multidose Vaccine Series in Early Childhood" published in Pediatrics
In the July 25 issue, Pediatrics published Failure to Complete Multidose Vaccine Series in Early Childhood. The conclusions section appears below.
More than 1 in 6 US children initiated but did not complete all doses in multidose vaccine series [in 2019], suggesting children experienced structural barriers to vaccination. Increased focus on strategies to encourage multidose series completion is needed to optimize protection from preventable diseases and achieve vaccination coverage goals.
Click here to go to the video abstract.
“Demographic Disparities in Mpox Vaccination Series Completion, by Route of Vaccine Administration—California, August 9, 2022–March 31, 2023” published in MMWRCDC published Demographic Disparities in Mpox Vaccination Series Completion, by Route of Vaccine Administration—California, August 9, 2022–March 31, 2023 on July 28 in MMWR. A portion of the summary appears below.
Demographic disparities among persons completing the 2-dose mpox vaccination series have been previously described. . . .
California residents who received their first dose of mpox vaccine by intradermal or subcutaneous administration had comparable 2-dose series completion rates (60.2% and 58.8%, respectively). Similar series completion rates by route of administration were observed across all race and ethnicity groups, persons aged 18–64 years, community health conditions, and persons assigned male sex at birth. . . .
Route of administration of the first dose was not associated with lower overall 2-dose series completion rates. Continued efforts are needed to ensure persons at risk for mpox receive both recommended doses.
Access the MMWR article in HTML or PDF.
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“QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Received an Influenza Vaccination in the Past 12 Months, by Race and Ethnicity and Family Income—National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2021” published in MMWRCDC published QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Received an Influenza Vaccination in the Past 12 Months, by Race and Ethnicity and Family Income—National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2021 on July 28 in MMWR. The summary appears below.
In 2021, non-Hispanic Asian (Asian) adults aged ≥18 years were the most likely to receive an influenza vaccination in the past 12 months (57.1%) followed by non-Hispanic White (White) (53.3%) adults; Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) and non-Hispanic Black or African American (Black) adults were the least likely to receive an influenza vaccination (37.7% and 37.9%, respectively). Among adults with family incomes 100%–199% and ≥200% of FPL [Federal Poverty Level], Hispanic and Black adults were significantly less likely than Asian and White adults were to receive an influenza vaccination. Among adults with family incomes <100% of FPL, the differences among Hispanic, Black, and White adults were not statistically significant, but the percentage who had received an influenza vaccination in each of these groups was lower than the percentage among Asian adults. Vaccination coverage increased significantly with each increasing level of family income for White adults only.
Access the MMWR article in HTML or PDF.
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"Vaccination Mandates—an Old Public Health Tool Faces New Challenges" published in JAMAIn the July 24 issue, JAMA published Vaccination Mandates—an Old Public Health Tool Faces New Challenges. Portions of the commentary appear below.
The authority of states and localities to require vaccination is a bedrock principle of public health law. Since 1905, when the US Supreme Court upheld compulsory smallpox inoculations, there has been sustained judicial consensus that the Constitution “does not import an absolute right to be…wholly freed from restraint.” Otherwise, “organized society could not exist with safety to its members.” Until recently, objections to mandatory vaccinations were confined to a small minority of US residents. However, civic values eroded during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a groundswell of resistance. With state legislatures now sharply limiting public health authority and a bevy of legal challenges mounted (eTables 1 and 2 in the Supplement), vaccination mandates—an old and highly effective public health tool—face legal uncertainty that only a few years ago seemed inconceivable. . . .
Where mandates are not feasible, government can boost vaccine uptake through evidence-based nudges and supports, including COVID-19–era innovations such as requiring proof of vaccination to access public venues such as restaurants or entertainment events and paying cash incentives. Simple behavioral cues, such as routine vaccinations with “opt-out” provisions, increase vaccination coverage. Yet the courts are making it increasingly difficult to wield an old and effective weapon in the public health arsenal to fight new threats.
Virtual: ACIP meets to vote on nirsevimab recommendations for RSV prevention in infants and inclusion in the Vaccines for Children program on August 3, 11:00 a.m. (ET)
On July 17, FDA announced the approval of Beyfortus (nirsevimab) for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease in neonates and infants born during or entering their first RSV season, and in children up to 24 months of age who remain vulnerable to severe RSV disease through their second RSV season. Nirsevimab was developed by AstraZeneca and will be distributed by Sanofi. A portion of the news release appears below.
Beyfortus is a monoclonal antibody with activity against RSV. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful pathogens such as viruses.
CDC will convene the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 11:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. (ET) on August 3, to discuss and vote on nirsevimab recommendations for RSV prevention in infants and its inclusion in the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program.
No registration is required to watch webcasts of live ACIP meetings or listen via telephone. Opportunities for public comment are described on the website.
View the agenda.
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