Vaccination and Immunization

Dr Anne Schuchat, Assistant Surgeon General and Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, discusses the recent CDC report on declining humanpapillomavirus vaccine rates in adolescents.

The high cost of purchasing and administering vaccines has been a topic of discussion by pediatricians for some time. New vaccines cost much more than the older ones, and even the old vaccines have consistently increased in cost over the years. This has caused some pediatricians to consider dropping vaccines from their practices altogether.

The CDC releases its numbers on how many adolescents receive the human papillomavirus vaccine.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has taken the unusual step of recommending nasal spray vaccine over flu shots for healthy children aged 2 to 8 years.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently approved the 2014 recommended schedules for childhood and adolescent immunizations.

Vaccine-hesitant parents respond to strong provider recommendations.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released its guidance for influenza vaccination during the 2013-2014 influenza season. As always, AAP recommends that all children and adolescents aged 6 months and older receive either the trivalent or quadrivalent influenza vaccine, and children should be immunized as soon as the vaccine becomes available.

Do sick-visit immunizations dampen parental incentive to return for missed well-baby examinations?

Influenza-associated neurologic complications in children are rare but can be severe. Familiarity with the clinical presentation and frequency of specific neurologic findings can help pediatricians with early diagnosis and treatment.

IOM advises sustained federal commitment to research on schedule safety

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization to retain the use of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines.

The first meeting of the Committee on Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule was held in February in Washington, DC, at the Pew Charitable Trust.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its recommended immunization schedules for children and adolescents.

Infants who are immunized in the afternoon sleep better during the first 24 hours after immunization than those immunized earlier in the day, particularly if they have elevated temperatures.

Now more than ever you are on the front lines in the battle to get children immunized against dangerous diseases. More than 1 in 8 parents have adopted an alternative vaccination schedule for their children, with almost twice that number saying they do not believe the government’s recommended schedule is the best one to follow. You might be shocked to find out how dramatically risk increases when even 1 scheduled vaccine is skipped.

To identify parents' beliefs and barriers related to influenza immunization of school-aged children and to evaluate how accepting parents are of school-based influenza immunization, investigators surveyed parents of students at an elementary school in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Over the past decade, the United States has had tremendous success in achieving very high immunization compliance rates among children, sometimes as high as 91%.

Letters to the editor about iron deficiency, encouraging vaccinating children in the hopsital, and more.

In my exam room hangs a poster of diseases that have been significantly reduced through vaccination (eg, chicken pox, measles, polio)...

The federal government is changing the recommendations for vaccinations: what should the new ones be, and how will the changes affect your practice?

Various government groups work to safeguard the future of vaccines.

A discussion of the problems associated with the new CDC recommendations for immunizing children with the flu vaccine.

Immunization rates among children living in the inner city and enrolled in subsidized health care are just over half of national averages, a recent study has found.

Asthma inhalers, pediatric vaccination, and government funding of children's health insurance are the talk of the town this month.

If the promise of new vaccines, such as Gardasil, is to be achieved, pediatricians and family physicians must be relieved of the burdens associated with purchasing and administering them.

The July 2006 issue, which featured an update on STDs, included a case on primary syphilis in a teenager (page 427). Therapy with intramuscular penicillin G (weekly for 3 weeks) or ceftriaxone (daily for 2 weeks) was recommended. However, the CDC's newly published guidelines on STD treatment recommend therapy with a single intramuscular dose of 2.4 million units of penicillin G.1 If the patient is allergic to penicillin, the alternative is therapy with doxycycline (100 mg orally bid for 14 days) or tetracycline (500 mg qid for 14 days). Ceftriaxone is not a recommended treatment for syphilis.

Nationally, immunization levels are higher than ever, but new challenges mean no rest for the pediatric community. Consider these tips on maintaining immunization coverage-to help you preserve and extend essential protection for children in your care.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) unanimously voted on June 29 that children 4 to 6 years old receive a second dose of varicella vaccine for the prevention of chickenpox.