Vaccination and Immunization

Nurse practitioner Donna Hallas, PhD, PPCNP-BC, CPNP, PMHS, FAANP, FAAN offers her thoughts on the recent FDA approval of GSK's meningococcal ABCWY vaccine.

The combination vaccine targets 5 groups of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis (A,B,C,W, AND Y) that cause the most invasive meningococcal disease cases (IMD) globally.

Of those with a minimum age or minimum interval vaccine dose, 44.9% ended up receiving extra doses to complete a vaccination series.

The initiation of a phase 2 study of the investigational 31-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is expected by the end of January 2025.

The study outcomes were estimated IMD cases and deaths averted by MenACWY vaccination in adolescents and adults aged 11 to 23 years.

"The novel RSV prevention strategies may reduce ICU morbidity and mortality for children," the study authors concluded.

Donna Hallas, PPCNP-BC, CPNP, PMHS, FAANP, FAAN, highlights key takeaways from our October Vaccine issue of Contemporary Pediatrics.

The CDC committee has set new recommendations based on children's age, vaccination status, and overall immunity health, for the 2024 - 2025 period.

A CDC report reviews HPV vaccination trends in US Pacific Islands, revealing mixed progress towards the 2030 goal of 90% completion among girls by age 15.

Among children born in 2020, vaccination coverage was 4 to 14 percentage points lower among those who were eligible for VFC versus non-eligible children.

According to the report authors, girls were more likely to receive 1 or more HPV vaccine doses compared to boys (42.9% vs 34.6%).

The 5-in-1 vaccine candidate has the potential to reduce shots and simplify the immunization process.

A study on Italian vaccination rates and factors influencing Rotavirus vaccine acceptance.

Of the 600,238 bivalent vaccine doses administered by all providers in the study period, 35,114 (5.9%) were done so by FRPP partners.

Though a small number of infants received nirsevimab in the analysis, results support existing nirsevimab recommendations to prevent serious RSV disease in infants.

Investigators of a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated efficacy against the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19 in children and adolescents, offering new, extended follow-up period data.

The unprecedented demand for nirsevimab-alip has resulted in a dramatic uptake in production of this RSV vaccine.

The FDA was made aware some health care providers had administered the full single dose vial of the vaccine, which contains “notably more” volume than the 0.25 mL volume indicated for children aged 6 months to 11 years.

Parents who reported the stigmatizing belief “My child is not having sex” were much more likely to rely on health care providers as a source of information than parents who did not report this belief.

Individuals 12 years and older can now receive the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted (2023-2024 Formula) (NVX-CoV2601) to protect against variants that are currently circulating, after receiving an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA.

*Co-first authorship was earned, as each equally contributed to the methodical and rigorous review of the literature, writing, and editing of this article.

Tocilizumab-bavi (Tofidence; Biogen) demonstrated a biosimilarity to tocilizumab (Actemra; Genentech) based on multifaceted clinical and non-clinical data for polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (PJIA) and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) in children aged 2 years and up. This makes it the first tocilizumab biosimilar to be FDA-approved in the United States, according to Biogen.

Standout updates include a relaxed recommendation for patients with a history of egg allergies, and that all available influenza vaccines for the 2023 to 2024 flu season are quadrivalent.

Bivalent COVID-19 vaccines by both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are no longer authorized for use in the United States.

The effects of GARDASIL 9 (Human Papillomavirus 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant) in patients aged 9 to 15 years has indicated efficacy, according to a recent long-term follow-up study.

According to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the original COVID-19 monovalent and bivalent vaccines helped reduce emergency department or urgent care encounters for children aged 6 months to 5 years.

Basis for a Biologics License Application submission to the FDA is being built for PXVX0317, following topline results demonstrated in a pair of phase 3 trials, including 1 trial featuring adolescents and adults aged 12 to 64 years.

An analysis of a nationwide sample of more than 30,000 clinicians provides insight into rates of HPV vaccination among US adolescents and how changes in reimbursement rate might encourage increased vaccination rates.

The vaccine efficacy of the Novavax’s NVX-CoV2373 was 79.5% in adolescents.

Jonathan Miller, MD, pediatrician and chief of primary care, pediatrics, at Nemours Children's Health in the Delaware Valley, spoke about the latest data regarding early HPV vaccination in children as young as 9 at the 2023 Pediatric Academic Societies meeting.