Vaccination and Immunization

It’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest news about vaccines, particularly when so many parents today are questioning the safety and necessity of vaccinations.

For whatever reasons, uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the teenaged years is mediocre, but do the college years offer new opportunities for healthcare providers to encourage the vaccine? Maybe not, according to a new study.

Compliance with recommended immunizations among adolescents is not the best, but what may be more startling is the fact that most parents don't even realize that their child is missing vaccines.

Primary care practices are the backbone of childhood immunization delivery, and have become indispensable in the promotion of public health. Over the last decades, however, the skyrocketing costs of vaccines have gone from a minor consideration in the overhead of a pediatric practice to one of significant financial burden, largely because of new vaccines.

A new study detailing the impact of early infection, antibiotics, and vaccines in preterm infants also offers hope that new vaccine therapies could help decrease sepsis and long-term damage in this vulnerable population.

Parental knowledge and provider support are key factors in increasing acceptance and uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among parents of boys, according to a new report.

Physicians should be cautious when administering vaccines, particularly pneumococcal vaccines, to patients with autoinflammatory disorders, according to a new study.

A new study found that unvaccinated children suffer more from colds and the flu than their vaccinated peers, with study authors seeking to provide evidence-based data for parents who worry vaccines are too taxing on their child’s immune system.

Most children are not being adequately vaccinated against influenza, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also just published a new report demonstrating the efficacy of the vaccine in reducing influenza-related deaths in children.

Despite controversy surrounding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, more adolescents and young adults are getting vaccinated. However, overall vaccination rates of HPV compared with other teenaged-years vaccines are still low, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Bacteremia is now a rare event in previously healthy children aged 3 to 36 months because of the introduction of routine immunization with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).

Among concerns with administering these multiple and frequent immunizations in young children are the potential pain and adverse effects associated with injections. Along with inducing pain in some children, the early negative experience of needle-related procedures can interfere with adherence to immunization schedules and create long-lasting effects of anxiety and stress around needle-related procedures that remain into adulthood.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have released updated pediatric immunization schedules for 2017.

Findings of a recently published observational retrospective cohort study point to a need for increased efforts to improve timely completion of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series among boys.

A comparison of 4 levels of pain management of routine vaccine injections found that of the remedies tried, only liposomal lidocaine applied at the injection site provided consistent relief.

In a recently published essay to address this question, the authors suggest that pediatricians may present human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine as optional or less urgent than other adolescent vaccines because they do not often read or hear about their patients’ being affected by HPV-associated cancers, which generally strike older populations.

To reduce human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers, pediatricians must strongly recommend the underutilized HPV vaccine in preteens.

Enhancing parental knowledge about vaccine science is one strategy for promoting vaccination adherence and overcoming vaccine hesitancy. An alternative approach is to target school-aged children as they are the parents of the future.

Egg allergies are no longer a contraindication for influenza vaccination, but intranasal mists won’t be an alternative for the shot during this year’s flu season, either, according to new recommendations released by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Recent data has revealed the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), also known as the “nasal spray” vaccine, to be grossly ineffective, leading to the ACIP’s decision not to recommend its usage. As such, healthcare providers must be judicious in their choice of influenza vaccine with their patients.

Flu shots given to mothers during pregnancy provided protection for their babies against three common strains of influenza for several weeks after birth, according to a new report.

Maintaining the currently recommended vaccination schedule of influenza, pneumococcal conjugate, and diphtheria/tetanus/acellular pertussis vaccines in young children as put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is likely the best way to manage immunization in this patient population despite the slightly increased risk for febrile seizure.

An analysis of data on the incidence of pertussis shows that although acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine had a positive impact among adolescents in the 4 years after it was introduced in 2005, in 2010 pertussis incidence in this age group began to increase more rapidly than it did in all other age groups.

Children with a history of asthma may be at increased risk for breakthrough varicella infection, according to a new retrospective, population-based case-control study.

Findings of a new study should alleviate concern that immunization puts preterm infants at risk for clinical deterioration.

For Contemporary Pediatrics, Dr Bobby Lazzara explains key findings from a nationally representative survey published in Clinical Pediatrics. The survey asked parents what they wanted to know about vaccines and how they wanted providers to handle their concerns.

Physicians who opt against recommending HPV vaccination because they assume their patient is too young or not sexually active, or that the parent will refuse, are missing an opportunity to protect against a dangerous virus, according to a new study.

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and pertussis have led pediatricians to take a hard line, sometimes dismissing patients who are non-compliant with immunizations. A new study examines the prevalence-and consequences-of patient dismissal.

The currently recommended childhood immunization schedule put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is designed to protect infants and young children from 14 harmful and potentially deadly diseases before a child’s second birthday.

Findings of a new prospective Swedish population-based cohort study provide further reassurance about the safety of H1N1 vaccination in pregnant women.