This newsletter is meant to keep you up to date on issues related to vaccines quickly
and easily. We welcome your comments and questions; please email us at
vacinfo@email.chop.edu.
VEC Announcements: CDC Posts Vaccine Storage and
Handlign Kit; Get Your CME Credits; Dr. Offit on Medscape
CDC posts vaccine storage and handling toolkit
As a follow-up to last month’s “Technically Speaking” column by Dr. Wexler, we wanted to
provide the link to the CDC’s “
Vaccine
Storage and Handling Toolkit.” The toolkit contains many useful resources including equipment
considerations, strategies for maintaining the cold chain, routine and emergency storage and
handling practices, and guidance related to inventory management.
Review
Dr. Wexler’s column»
Get your CME credits
Just a reminder that if you need to catch up on CME credits, the VEC can help:
-
Archived
webinars presented by Dr. Offit – Three webinars presented during 2012 are available for
continuing education credits.
- Other vaccine-related courses that offer CME are
on the
calendar, including on-demand Web-based offerings that can be completed at your convenience.
Dr. Offit on Medscape
A
new Medscape
video featuring Dr. Offit discussing HPV vaccine and boys is now available for viewing. If you
do not already have an account with Medscape, you can
sign up
free-of-charge.
News and Views: Influenza Update
Charlotte A. Moser, Assistant Director, and Paul A. Offit, Director, Vaccine Education Center
at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
National Influenza Immunization Week (NIIW) was the week of December 2. One activity
scheduled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was an influenza update for
members of the press.
Review
the key messages from the CDC’s update and find out about patient resources related to
influenza»
In the Journals: California Pertussis Epidemic, 2010
Paul A. Offit, MD, Director, Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia
In December 2012, Kathleen Winter and coworkers from the California Department of Public
Health in Sacramento reported the details of a pertussis outbreak in 2010 (Winter K, et al.
California Pertussis
Epidemic, 2010, J Pediatr. 2012 Dec;161(6):1091-6. Investigators made several observations of
interest.
Read more about their findings»
Technically Speaking: A New Program
for Reporting Vaccine Errors
Deborah L. Wexler, MD, Executive Director, Immunization Action Coalition
Over the years, the Immunization Action Coalition has received hundreds of questions about
vaccination procedural errors and what to do about them or where to report them. Some common errors
include administering the wrong vaccine or the wrong dose; giving a vaccine before the minimum age
or interval; administering the vaccine by the wrong route or at the wrong anatomic site;
reconstituting a vaccine improperly; using expired or improperly handled vaccine; or even
vaccinating the wrong patient. The
Institute for Safe Medication
Practices (ISMP) recently launched an online website to report vaccine errors.
Read more about the ISMP and their reporting program»
From the Media — Vaccine-Preventable Disease
Reports
While people were being encouraged to get pertussis and influenza vaccines in multiple states,—
and those cleaning up from Hurricane Sandy, the tetanus vaccine—we continued to see reports of
vaccine-preventable diseases.
Read more»
On the Calendar – Immunization Conferences in NH
and CA
Organizers in New Hampshire and California have announced 2013 conference dates and locations.
Check the calendar for more information including links to conference information.
Check the calendar»
On the Bookshelf: How the Immune System Works
by Lauren Sompayrac
Charlotte A. Moser, Assistant Director, Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia
In recent months, this column has contained reviews of books dedicated to
bacteria
and
viruses.
To complement these selections, we now review a book dedicated to explaining how our immune system
deals with encounters by these and other aggressors. Published earlier this year in its fourth
edition, “How the Immune System Works” by Lauren Sompayrac provides readers with a detailed look at
the immune system, both what is known and what is not yet known, in an easy to understand and
concise style.
Read more about the book»
Resources: Updated VIS and Interesting Medscape Video
With Parallels to Vaccine Exemptions
Updated vaccine information statements
The CDC recently announced updates to the following Vaccine Information Statements
(VIS):
- Multiple Vaccines (DTaP, IPV, Hib, PCV, Hepatitis B, and Rotavirus) – main change was to add
intussusception as a rare adverse event for rotavirus
- Pneumococcal (PCV13) – updated to include revised adult recommendations
- Tdap and Td – updated to include recommendation for pregnant women
The end of each year is a good time to make sure you are using the most recent VIS.
This
table shows the dates on the most current versions. If you need to access revised versions, go
to the
CDC’s dedicated VIS page where
you can download and print the most current version of any sheet or download RTF files for use in
electronic systems.
Interesting Medscape video with parallels to vaccine exemptions
In “You MUST let my bedsores kill me! You MUST!” Dr. Art Caplan, one of the country’s
prominent bioethicists, tells an interesting story about a patient who upon hearing he would need
to live the remainder of his days in a nursing home, refused to be turned and consequently
succumbed to infections caused by bedsores. Dr. Caplan discusses how this patient’s decision
affected the hospital staff and morale concluding that while individuals have rights to request
withholding medical care, in certain scenarios these requests may impinge upon the rights of
others, and, therefore, may not be appropriate to honor. His concluding statement, “. . .that’s
your right to do, but that’s not something we can accept at this facility” rings of current
discussions related to whether or not it is appropriate to turn away patients who refuse
immunizations.
Watch the video»
