Issue
Number 523
May 2, 2005
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
- "Read immediately" issue of Immunization Works discusses relocation of
the Immunization Safety Branch
- April issue of CDC's Immunization Works electronic newsletter now
available on the NIP website
- New: CDC's commemorative timeline, 50 Years of Vaccine Progress, is
posted on NIP's website
- New: VISs for three travel-related vaccines now available in DVD,
video, and CD-ROM formats
- Updated: IAC revises two of its education pieces
- CDC reports on recent worldwide progress toward interruption of wild
poliovirus transmission
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ABBREVIATIONS: AAFP, American Academy of Family Physicians; AAP, American
Academy of Pediatrics; ACIP, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices;
CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; FDA, Food and Drug
Administration; IAC, Immunization Action Coalition; MMWR, Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report; NIP, National Immunization Program; VIS, Vaccine
Information Statement; VPD, vaccine-preventable disease; WHO, World Health
Organization.
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May 2, 2005
"READ IMMEDIATELY" ISSUE OF IMMUNIZATION WORKS DISCUSSES RELOCATION OF THE
IMMUNIZATION SAFETY BRANCH
On April 29, CDC released a "read immediately" issue of its Immunization
Works electronic newsletter. Written by Chief Science Officer Dr. Dixie
Snyder, the issue discusses the relocation of the Immunization Safety
Branch. It is reprinted below in its entirety.
********************
As many of you know, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
has been taking steps to further strengthen the nation's immunization
program. One critical decision that has been made is to relocate the
immunization safety activities from CDC's National Immunization Program to
CDC's Office of the Chief Science Officer (OCSO), which Dr. Julie Gerberding,
Director of CDC, announced at the recent National Immunization Conference in
Washington, D.C. In early April, CDC notified Congress of this decision, and
on April 21, the 15-day congressional notification period ended, making the
relocation of the immunization safety activities to OCSO official. We wanted
to share with you some important information now that this transition period
is over:
- The new name of the office
will be the Immunization Safety
Office (ISO).
- Dr. Frank DeStefano will continue to serve as acting director
of the ISO until the selection of a permanent director,
conducted via national search, is completed. This position
reports directly to Dr. Dixie Snider, CDC's Chief Science
Officer.
- Attached is a document with several Questions and Answers
that we thought might be helpful in the event that you or
your organization receive inquiries from the public and
others.
- For more information about the Office of the Chief Science
Officer, you can visit the following website:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/ads
CDC is committed to building a more robust immunization safety
activity with the goal of sustaining confidence through
continued scientific quality, objectivity, and transparency of
CDC's immunization recommendations. Therefore we want to assure
you that collaboration between the National Immunization Program
and the Office of the Chief Science Officer's ISO on these
important immunization safety issues will continue.
Should you have any questions and/or concerns, please feel free
to contact Brooke Barry at (404) 639-7404 or Cathy Spruill at
(404) 639-7259. Thank you for your continued support and
patience during this process.
Sincerely,
Dixie Snider Jr., MD, MPH
Chief Science Officer
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Within the next few days, the 4/29/05 "read immediately" issue
is expected to be posted to the following web section:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/news/newsltrs/imwrks/imwrks.htm
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May 2, 2005
APRIL ISSUE OF CDC'S IMMUNIZATION WORKS ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NOW AVAILABLE ON THE NIP WEBSITE
The April issue of Immunization Works, a monthly email
newsletter published by CDC, is available on NIP's website. The
newsletter offers members of the immunization community non-proprietary information about current topics. CDC encourages its
wide dissemination.
The main article explains the two-tiered pre-booking and
distribution strategies recommended for the 2005-06 influenza
season. This article and all other articles in the April issue
were covered in previous issues of IAC Express.
To access a copy of the April issue from the NIP website, go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/news/newsltrs/imwrks/2005/200504.htm
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May 2, 2005
NEW: CDC'S COMMEMORATIVE TIMELINE, 50 YEARS OF VACCINE PROGRESS,
IS POSTED ON NIP'S WEBSITE
CDC has developed a commemorative timeline that charts major
milestones in vaccine development, administration, and safety
since 1955, the year inactivated polio vaccine was licensed in
the United States. Titled 50 Years of Vaccine Progress, the
timeline is posted on the NIP website at
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vaccine/vacc-timeline.htm
To access a ready-to-print (PDF) color poster of the timeline,
suitable for a commercial printer, go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vaccine/vacc-timeline-poster.pdf
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May 2, 2005
NEW: VISs FOR THREE TRAVEL-RELATED VACCINES NOW AVAILABLE IN
DVD, VIDEO, AND CD-ROM FORMATS
Healthway Software of Fargo, ND, has recently produced VISs for
three travel-related vaccines in DVD, video, and CD-ROM formats.
Available for rabies, yellow fever, and typhoid vaccines, these
"talking" VISs include audio, graphics, animation, and text.
This makes them useful for presenting vaccine information to
people with vision problems or limited literacy. Each "talking"
VIS is available in English only, comes with a written handout,
and costs $10. Run times vary between 7.3 minutes and 10.0
minutes.
RABIES VACCINE VISs. The DVD, video, and CD-ROM formats are
based on the current CDC VIS for rabies vaccine, dated 11/4/03.
To access additional information, go to:
http://www.healthwaysoftware.com/engrabies.htm
YELLOW FEVER VACCINE VISs. The DVD, video, and CD-ROM formats
are based on the current CDC VIS for yellow fever vaccine, dated
11/9/04. To access additional information, go to:
http://www.healthwaysoftware.com/engyelfev.htm
TYPHOID VACCINE VISs. The DVD, video, and CD-ROM formats are
based on the current CDC VIS for typhoid vaccine, dated 5/19/04.
To access additional information, go to:
http://www.healthwaysoftware.com/engtyphoid.htm
ORDERING. To place an online order, go to:
http://www.healthwaysoftware.com/products.htm
To access an order form for fax and mail orders, go to:
http://www.healthwaysoftware.com/Orderform.pdf
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS. Healthway Software offers VISs and other
health education materials in video, DVD, and CD-ROM formats in
languages including English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Somali,
Bosnian, Russian, and Arabic. To access Healthway Software's
complete product line, go to: http://www.healthwaysoftware.com
and scroll down the left column to the section titled Materials
Available.
For additional information, send an email message to
contact@healthwaysoftware.com
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May 2, 2005
UPDATED: IAC REVISES TWO OF ITS EDUCATION PIECES
IAC recently made major revisions to the following education
pieces:
(1) "Reliable Sources of Immunization Information: Where to go
to find answers!" Suitable for professionals or patients/
parents, this one-page education sheet was completely revised in
April. It offers up-to-date contact information for a variety of
dependable immunization resources: websites, staffed telephone
lines, books, and videos.
To access a ready-to-print (PDF) version, go to:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4012.pdf
To access a web-text (HTML) version, go to:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4012.htm
(2) "Suggestions to Improve Your Immunization Services." This
two-page education sheet gives health professionals an easy
means of assessing the immunization services they provide to
patients. It was re-titled and completely updated in April. The
previous title was "Tips to Improve Your Clinic's Immunization
Rates."
To access a ready-to-print (PDF) version, go to:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p2045tip.pdf
To access a web-text (HTML) version, go to:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p2045.htm
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May 2, 2005
CDC REPORTS ON RECENT WORLDWIDE PROGRESS TOWARD INTERRUPTION OF
WILD POLIOVIRUS TRANSMISSION
CDC published "Progress Toward Interruption of Wild Poliovirus
Transmission--Worldwide, January 2004-March 2005" in the
April 29 issue of MMWR. The article's opening paragraph is
reprinted below.
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In 1988, the World Health Assembly of the World Health
Organization (WHO) resolved to eradicate poliomyelitis globally.
Since then, substantial worldwide progress has been made toward
that goal; the number of countries where polio is endemic
declined from 125 in 1988 to six by the end of 2003. Further
progress in 2004 toward interruption of transmission has
continued in the three Asian countries where polio is endemic
(Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan). However, in 2003, two
countries in Africa experienced a resurgence of polio cases; the
resurgence continued to spread in 2004 from the Nigeria-Niger
endemic reservoir to involve a total of 14 countries that had
not reported polio >=1 year. Local transmission of wild
poliovirus (WPV) has been reestablished in six of these
14 countries, including Sudan, where a major outbreak occurred.
This report describes global efforts to eradicate polio during
January 2004-March 2005 and outlines remaining challenges to
interrupting transmission in countries where polio remains
endemic or transmission has been reestablished.
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To access a web-text (HTML) version of the complete article, go
to: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5416a4.htm
To access a ready-to-print (PDF) version of this issue of MMWR,
go to: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5416.pdf
To receive a FREE electronic subscription to MMWR (which
includes new ACIP statements), go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwrsubscribe.htm |
