Parents PACK Newsletter

September 2009

Parents Pack Newsletter

Possessing, Accessing and Communicating Knowledge About Vaccines

In this issue:

• Feature Article: Seasonal Influenza Vaccine
• Spotlight: 11th Edition of CDC’s Pink Book Now Available
• Did You Know? . . . Annual Deaths from Rabies
• Ask the VEC – Hepatitis B Vaccine for Newborns?
• Around the World: World Health Organization Measles Vaccine Recommendations
• Trivia Corner – Vaccines and Pregnant Women

September Trivia Corner

While most vaccines are not given to pregnant women, which one is recommended for pregnant women? Find out.

Feature Article: Seasonal Influenza Vaccine

Do you get your influenza vaccine every year? Are you in the 4 of 5 Americans who are recommended to get it? Are you going to get it this year because you keep hearing about the novel H1N1 pandemic influenza? We’d like to hear your thoughts! Send us an e-mail at contactPACK@email.chop.edu.

Who should get the influenza vaccine?

There are various groups of people recommended to get the influenza vaccine; these people fall into two basic categories:

People who are at higher risk of suffering severe pneumonia or death from influenza:

• People with diseases of the lungs, heart, kidneys, or liver or those with neurologic, neuromuscular, blood or metabolic disorders
• People who are immunosuppressed either because of disease or treatment of disease:
• Children between 6 months and 5 years old
• Adults 50 years or older
• Healthcare personnel
• Women who will be pregnant during influenza season
• Residents of long-term care facilities
• Children receiving long-term aspirin therapy

People who are at high risk of transmitting influenza to others:

• Children between 5 and 18 years
• People who live with or provide care for:
  • Children less than 5 years old especially those who will be around infants less than 6 months old (because they can not get the influenza vaccine)
  • Adults more than 50 years old
  • Individuals in the high-risk groups listed above

The CDC also recommends that anyone who wants to protect themselves from influenza should also be immunized.

Who should not get the influenza vaccine?

People with a known life-threatening allergy to eggs should not be immunized.

The vaccine can be given to people with mild illness; however, it should be delayed for people with a moderate to severe illness with or without fever.

Which vaccine should I get — the shot or the nasal spray?

There are two forms of the seasonal influenza vaccine:

• Influenza vaccine shot – The shot is made from inactivated (dead) influenza viruses that can not cause influenza, but which introduce a person’s immune system to the proteins that it will encounter if the person is exposed to influenza virus during the season. This version can be given to any person 6 months or older.
• Influenza vaccine nasal spray – The nasal spray is made from weakened, live influenza viruses that can not reproduce at high enough levels to cause disease, but which introduce the immune system to the proteins of influenza that it may encounter during the season. This version can only be given to healthy people that are 2 to 49 years old. Pregnant women should not get this version of the influenza vaccine.

When will the seasonal influenza vaccine be available?

Seasonal influenza vaccine is available now. In fact, some physicians and clinics are already administering it. Check with your doctor or clinic to see when they will be immunizing.

Am I protected from influenza as soon as I get my vaccine?

No. It will take about two weeks for your body to generate a protective response to the vaccine.

For children less than 9 years old who have not had the vaccine before, they will require a second dose about four weeks after the first in order to have a strong enough immune response.

Will I be protected from the new H1N1 influenza virus after I get my vaccine?

No. It is not likely that the seasonal influenza vaccine will protect people from the novel H1N1 influenza virus. However, researchers are continuing to study a new vaccine that will protect against H1N1. The new vaccine should be available by early October.

The first people likely to receive this vaccine include: 

• Pregnant women
• People who live with or care for children 6 months of age or younger
• Healthcare workers with direct patient contact
• Children between 6 months and 18 years

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Spotlight: 11th Edition of CDC’s Pink Book Now Available

Commonly known as “The Pink Book,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently published the 11th edition of its comprehensive vaccine guide, “Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases.” The book contains the latest information and updates on immunizations and is a great resource for anyone desiring information about vaccines and the diseases they prevent. The resource is available online or by calling toll free (877) 252-1200.

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Did You Know? . . . Annual Deaths From Rabies

About 10 million people throughout the world are exposed to and about 55,000 die each year from rabies. September 28, 2009 has been declared World Rabies Day; learn more about the Alliance for Rabies Control, their goals and World Rabies Day events. This Web site is available in several languages.

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Ask The Vec - Hepatitis B Vaccine for Newborns?

Q. Can you please tell me why my newborn needs to get the hepatitis B vaccine? I thought hepatitis B was a sexually-transmitted disease.

A. You are correct that hepatitis B can be transmitted through sexual contact; however, it can also be passed to others through contact with the blood of infected individuals. When the vaccine first became available in the U.S., recommendations were for people in high-risk groups to get it. High-risk groups included men having sex with men, heterosexuals with multiple sex partners, and injection-drug users. Despite this recommendation, public health officials found that about 1 of every 3 people with hepatitis were not in one of these high-risk groups, including about 16,000 U.S. children less than 10 years old annually.

Hepatitis B can be transmitted by nonsexual contact with infected household contacts or infected people in childcare settings. There are two further concerns with this nonsexual transmission:

• Many people do not know they are infected and, therefore, transmit the disease without knowing it.
• Of further concern, infants and young children infected with hepatitis B are more likely to experience chronic hepatitis B infection, meaning that they are infected for a long period of time (e.g. greater than 6 months) and are more likely to suffer chronic liver disease (cirrhosis) or liver cancer later in life. Because of the length of infection, chronic carriers are also more likely to infect others.

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Around The World: World Health Organization Measles Vaccine Recommendations

In late August 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its recommendations regarding worldwide use of the measles vaccine. Measles is a highly infectious virus that causes rash, high fever, cough, cold-like symptoms, and pink-eye. Measles virus can also cause pneumonia or infect the brain causing encephalitis. Before a vaccine was available, 9 of every 10 children were infected before they were 10 years old.

The WHO recommends the measles vaccine for all children and adults that have not had vaccine or disease, except:

• Those with high fever or other serious signs of disease
• Pregnant women
• Those who are severely immunocompromised (e.g., HIV, advanced leukemia or lymphoma)
• Those receiving high doses of steroids
• Those who have had a severe allergic reaction to gelatin, a stabilizer used in vaccines

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Trivia Corner - Vaccines and Pregnant Women

While pregnant women are advised to wait until after giving birth to get most vaccines, the influenza vaccine is specifically recommended during pregnancy. This is because women are at an increased risk of suffering complications and hospitalization if they become ill with influenza while pregnant. Pregnant women are at increased risk because they:

• Have decreased lung volume
• Have increased blood volume (which leads to increased fluid in the lungs)
• Have decreased immunity

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 comments to contactPACK@email.chop.edu.

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