Parents PACK Newsletter

June 2007

Parents Pack Newsletter

Possessing, Accessing and Communicating Knowledge About Vaccines

In this issue:

• Feature Article: Travel and Vaccines
• Spotlight: CDC Traveler's Health Web Site
• Did You Know?. . .Travel and Vaccines
• Ask the VEC - Vaccine Recommendations and Package Inserts

Feature Article: Travel and Vaccines

If you are spending your summer vacation abroad this year, you should check with your healthcare provider about any vaccines that you may need. There are two types of vaccines to consider - those recommended specifically for your travel destination and those commonly recommended for the U.S.

Vaccines that are recommended for adults in the U.S. include those for tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, influenza, and polio. Many adults have had these immunizations as children and will not require additional doses; however, it is important to confirm that they were received and whether they need to be updated.

Additional vaccines may be required based on your travel itinerary. Your healthcare professional will require information about your dates of travel, destination, living and travel conditions, purpose, and activities while there. These details will determine your likelihood of contracting certain diseases. Some diseases are only prevalent at certain times of the year, in some countries, or in particular settings. For example, Japanese encephalitis virus is spread by mosquitoes, but the chance of being exposed depends upon location of travel, time of year of travel, amount of time that will be spent outside, time of day spent outside, and whether travel will be in rural locations.

Vaccines that may be considered for travel include Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine to prevent tuberculosis, and those to prevent cholera, hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, meningococcus, rabies, tick-borne encephalitis, typhoid, and yellow fever. While this list may seem daunting, it is not likely that all of these will be needed.

It is important to visit your healthcare provider as early as possible prior to traveling for a few reasons. First, some vaccines require more than one dose to be the most effective. Often follow-up doses must be given a few weeks after the first dose in order for this to happen. Second, many travel vaccines are not stored by healthcare professionals because they do not give them often, so they may either need to order the vaccines or send you to someone else to get the vaccines. Third, travel vaccines may or may not be covered by your health insurance. If you need to pay out-of-pocket, you will have time to save the money needed for all members of your family to get all of the necessary vaccines prior to travel.

Learn more about vaccines for travelers»

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Spotlight: CDC Traveler's Health Web Site

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a Web site dedicated to providing information for travelers. In addition to vaccine information and yellow fever clinics, the site contains information about safe food and water, mosquito and tick protection, avian flu, destination-specific information, and travel clinic information. The Web site is updated regularly to inform travelers about the most recent changes to recommendations or existing concerns. For example, strains of malaria vary by location and require different medications for treatment.

Learn more about vaccines for travelers»

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Did You Know?. . .Travel and Vaccines

Hepatitis A is the most common vaccine-preventable disease to affect travelers. It is transmitted by contaminated food and water.

Influenza is a year-round disease in the tropics. The vaccine may not be available in the U.S. prior to travel because of influenza's seasonality in this country.

Documentation of receipt of yellow fever vaccine is needed at some border crossings. This vaccine can only be given at official yellow fever vaccine centers. See the CDC link in the "Spotlight" feature above to learn where the centers are located.

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Ask the VEC — Vaccine Recommendations and Package Inserts

Q. I understand that the information included with a vaccine sometimes differs from more commonly available information. Can you explain why?

A. While a package insert provides information about the vaccine, it is important to realize that it is being provided by the company and, therefore, has legal requirements that must be followed in its preparation. During the development of a vaccine, safety studies are completed by comparing a group of people who received the vaccine to a group of people who did not, called the placebo group. If a side effect occurs more times in the vaccine group, it may be a result of the vaccine. However, the company, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), must report any side effects that occurred in the vaccine group, even if the number of occurrences was similar to those in the placebo group. All of these side effects are then listed in the package insert.

Groups that make recommendations about vaccines to healthcare professionals, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), don't use the same criteria as the FDA to determine whether a side effect is caused by vaccines. When these groups make recommendations, they review the data in the context of whether a particular side effect occurs significantly more often in the vaccine group than the placebo group. If it does, these side effects are listed in educational materials to physicians. For this reason, the number of side effects listed in the package insert is much greater than that listed by the CDC and AAP.

Send us your comments

If you have any comments about this newsletter or suggestions about how we can make our Web site more helpful, please send your commentsto contactPACK@email.chop.edu.

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