Vaccination and Immunization

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.

Here, in the second in a series of podcasts, Dr Ellen Clayton reviews findings of a landmark Institute of Medicine study on vaccine safety and offers information about specific vaccines that may be very useful to you when you answer questions from worried parents.

The issue of vaccine safety has been making headlines lately. Some of the publicity-particularly in the lay press and television-has been negative.

You and your colleagues are undoubtedly hearing questions from a lot of concerned parents about the new guidelines for vaccinating young boys against HPV infection. What are the chief concerns-and how can you best address those concerns?

What exactly are the new guidelines for vaccinating boys against HPV infection-and why is this development good news for both men and women?

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.

How will you address this question when your patients ask? Find out in this podcast.

As the calendar advances to the fall months, we are reminded everywhere that it’s time for the annual influenza vaccination. In August 2011, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) updated its vaccination recommendations to include new guidelines for children ages 6 months through 8 years, and for persons with egg allergy.

My 18-month-old son has had a diaper rash, with no other symptoms, within a few days of eating a poached egg on 3 separate occasions.

Vaccination against infectious diseases has saved millions of lives. The recurrent threat of influenza pandemics and the prevalence of global HIV infections underscore the need for better-designed, more effective vaccines.

The lay public is being increasingly educated about the significant impact of HPV infection and the potential benefits of vaccination in reducing female cervical cancer. More medical providers need to recognize the substantial disease that could be prevented in men.

It certainly is reasonable for pediatricians to discharge patients if parents consistently refuse vaccinations. More than one-third of surveyed pediatricians agree.1 Although the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests avoiding the dismissal of vaccination refusers, it also recommends consideration of dismissal “when a substantial level of distrust develops, significant differences in the philosophy of care emerge, or poor quality of communication persists.”

Newborns and young infants represent the population most at risk for the burden of severe pertussis-related and influenza-related morbidity and mortality. The sources of these infections in infants are often unclear but are probably adolescents and adults (pertussis) and children and adults (influenza)

With the sole exception of the multidose influenza vaccine, childhood vaccines are now thimerosal-free. Communicating this fact (with signs in clinic) is a quick and effective way of making this concern a non-issue. It helps reinforce the message that vaccines are safe. Parents are made aware that the pediatrician is cognizant of their concerns and has endeavored to address those concerns.

The importance of vaccination has been well proved over the years for both individuals and the community as a whole. According to the 2004 to 2006 National Immunization Survey sponsored by the CDC, about 80% of children in the United States are up-to-date (UTD) with their immunizations, a rate that although respectable still leaves room for improvement.

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%.