January 2016
Vaccine Update for Healthcare Providers

This newsletter is meant to keep you up to date on issues related to vaccines. We welcome your comments and questions; please email us at vacinfo@email.chop.edu.

VEC Announcements

New VEC resources

The Vaccine Education Center (VEC) is pleased to announce the availability of the following new resources:

Talking about Vaccines with Dr. Offit: HPV — In honor of Cervical Health Awareness Month we have released a new group of videos with Dr. Offit answering common HPV-related questions. These are questions that have been submitted to our HPV Web page, www.prevent-hpv.org.
Infectious Diseases and Pregnancy — This new addition to the “Special Topics” series addresses common vaccine-related questions before, during and after pregnancy. The sheets in the “Special Topics” series are about subjects that may be of interest to people who are immune-compromised, including those with cancer, as well as those who are pregnant, or have questions about travel. And, although the sheets in this series are not typically available in print, they can be photocopied for distribution as needed. Check out other sheets in this series on the Special Topics page in the Resources section of our website.
Rash poster now available in Spanish — The online information about rashes as well as the rash poster continue to be popular offerings. If you have not reviewed the online information, it contains more information and a greater number of rash-related conditions than the poster. Spanish posters are available for order at pricing similar to the English version (set of two for $1 plus shipping or set of 10 for $4 plus shipping; pricing is for same language quantities only). Orders can be placed online or by using this form.
Coloring book now available in Spanish — The coloring book, My Vaccine Activity Book, is now available in Spanish. The coloring book introduces vaccine science and history as well as some of the scientists who invented them. It also includes puzzles, a page for children to color vaccine vials, which shows the vaccines they received, and a certificate for keeping their community healthy by vaccination. Coloring books can be ordered online or using this form for $0.75 each plus shipping for orders of 100 or more or $1 each plus shipping for orders of less than 100. Costs are per language; discounted pricing does not apply for quantities in multiple languages.

Parents PACK update

The VEC is pleased to announce the release of a new Parents PACK tear pad to share with parents and patients who may be interested in our program for the public, known as Parents PACK. This program, part of the VEC’s offerings since 2005, is meant to support the public by directly providing vaccine information in a variety of ways. The program includes the following components:

Free monthly e-newsletter
Vaccines on the Go: What You Should Know — free mobile app for iPhones, iPads and Android devices
Talking about Vaccines with Dr. Paul Offit video series
Pinterest
Vaccine Trivia Game

Providers can also use these materials as tools in their own practices. We will be sending information over the next few weeks that outlines ways in which you can use the materials in your practice as well as an order form to get free copies of the Parents PACK tear pads. If you do not receive our mailings and would like to, please email vacinfo@email.chop.edu and provide your complete and accurate mailing address.

Free materials offerings

Because three different items are now available free of charge, we have made a special “free materials” order form. The items that can be ordered using this form include the new Parents PACK tear pads (English only), mobile app posters (English only) and prescription for information pads (English and Spanish).

You can order these materials using this form or online by clicking the link to the electronic form on the online ordering page of our website. Please order only quantities that you can realistically use and provide complete and accurate mailing addresses. You can reorder as needed.

New Medscape videos

Dr. Offit recently provided a couple of new videos for Medscape:

In A Child’s Right to be Vaccinated Dr. Offit discusses the new California exemption laws and whether protesters of the legislation correctly focused on their rights as parents or whether the real focus on rights should have been those of the children. Posted January 11, 2016.
In New Adjuvanted Flu Vaccine: No Concerns about Narcolepsy Dr. Offit discusses the new influenza vaccine, anticipated for licensure in the U.S., called Fluad®. This vaccine is different from others because it contains the adjuvant squalene. The video discusses this adjuvant and experiences with it in other countries, including the Pandemrix®-narcolepsy issue and why we won’t need to worry about that with Fluad. Posted December 11, 2015.

News and Views: Interpreting foreign immunization records and immunizing newly immigrated populations

Editor’s note: The idea for this month’s article was the result of a question submitted by a doctor in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As we communicated with our colleagues in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition, we determined that it was likely that other healthcare providers throughout the country were also dealing with this issue. Therefore, we were pleased when Joanne Sullivan, executive director, Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition, offered to write an article for our newsletter readers. We thank Joanne and hope you will find this article to be of help if this issue arises in your practice.

Have you had the challenge of deciphering a foreign immunization record lately? The process can be confusing and time consuming especially if you don’t have the resources to interpret the records.

If you have had this type of issue or think you might in the future, read more »

In the Journals: MERS and . . . camels?

Paul A. Offit, MD, Director, Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

In the mid-1950s, 27 companies made vaccines. By the early 1980s — largely due to merger and drop out — only 18 companies made them. Today, four major pharmaceutical companies make vaccines for America’s children. One reason is that, compared with drugs, vaccines aren’t particularly lucrative. Also, the business model for vaccines is that if they aren’t sold in wealthy, developed world nations like the United States, then they are unlikely to be profitable. So what about diseases that kill people in developing world countries like Ebola, SARS, MERS-CoV and chikungunya? Who will be making vaccines to prevent these diseases?

One interesting approach concerns the coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome otherwise known as MERS-CoV. During the past few years several outbreaks of MERS-CoV have occurred in the Middle East and in South Korea, each with an estimated mortality rate of 35 percent. While it is unlikely that we will see a vaccine to prevent MERS-CoV in the near future, we still might be able to prevent the disease. How? By attacking the disease reservoir: dromedary camels.

Read more about a study using this approach »

Technically Speaking: Remember to routinely administer TWO pneumococcal vaccines one year apart to healthy adults age 65 and older

Deborah L. Wexler, MD, Executive Director, Immunization Action Coalition

In Sept. 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released recommendations for the use of two pneumococcal vaccines for routine vaccination of healthy adults age 65 years and older.

Administer one dose of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13, Prevnar13®, Pfizer) to people age 65 years and older if they have not received a dose in the past.
Administer one dose of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23, Pneumovax®, Merck) one year following the PCV13 dose. If your patient received PCV13 at an age younger than 65, administer PPSV23 at age 65 years (at least one year after PCV13).
If your patient already received a dose of PPSV23 at age 65 or older, they don’t need another dose.

Find out more about the evolution of pneumococcal vaccine recommendations in adults, tips for immunizing those 65 years and older and additional resources »

From the Media: Three things you can do during Cervical Health Awareness Month

If you feel as though you have been hearing a lot about cervical cancer, human papillomavirus (HPV) and the HPV vaccine this month, you are probably not imagining it. These topics have been in the news as public health efforts are directed at reminding people of the potential harm that can be caused by HPV virus and ways to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Here are three things you can do to protect yourself and those around you from the effects of HPV:

Keep up with your own health and that of your family — make appointments for overdue Pap screenings or incomplete HPV vaccinations. (Check other vaccines at this time too!)
Remind your patients and their families about screenings and vaccinations.
Watch Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic to see how HPV affects lives — not just physically, but socially and emotionally as well. The VEC is pleased to offer free viewing of this one hour 20 minute documentary

On the Calendar

Check the calendar for information about state immunization meetings in New Hampshire, Wyoming and Pennsylvania as well as the Autism Science Foundation’s Day of Learning and the Immunization Coalition meeting to be held this year in Indianapolis.

Resources

Vaccinate Your Family

If you are familiar with the Vaccinate Your Baby initiative offered by Every Child by Two (ECBT), you will be pleased to know that in anticipation of ECBT’s 25th anniversary the initiative is expanding to address timely vaccination of ALL family members. The new Vaccinate Your Family initiative will replace Vaccinate Your Baby. Please make sure to change any bookmarks or links to this program:

If you were not familiar with Vaccinate Your Baby, take a few minutes to explore Vaccinate Your Family. The hard-working team at ECBT is devoted to sharing scientifically-accurate information about vaccines, the diseases they prevent, and their safety as well as personal stories from those affected by vaccine-preventable diseases.

ECBT was co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former First Lady of Arkansas, Betty Bumpers.

Herd immunity PSAs

Ethan Posard is a student who was featured in the student-produced movie Invisible Threat and has since authored a book about his experience, The Shots Book. Inspired by what he learned, Ethan has established a YouTube channel with short PSAs meant to educate his peers about public health-related issues. The channel currently contains a series of PSAs (30 seconds, 60 seconds and 90 seconds) describing herd immunity.

Quality improvement study opportunity

The Unity Consortium is inviting practices to participate in a study related to adolescent vaccinations. Called “Pursuit of the Three Cs: Confident, Concise and Consistent Physician Recommendations for Adolescent Vaccines,” the study will offer multi-faceted communications guidance, an on-site training expert and research assistance to work with staff, and data collection to track progress and evaluate the impact of the intervention. Practices will not be charged any fee for participating and will be provided with a modest honorarium. In order to be considered, practices should meet the following criteria:

Single specialty pediatrics practice with moderate to high volume of adolescent visits.
Practice has at least five providers, which may include NPs and/or Pas.
At least 90 percent of the providers in the practice must agree to participate.
Participating providers should work at least 60 percent FTE, spend 70 percent or more time in direct patient care, and have been practicing between two and 25 years.
Practice equipped with electronic health records that allow for generating blinded vaccination data/rates by provider.

The following exclusion criteria should also be considered before expressing interest:

Practice based in hospital/academic center.
Practice cannot reside in Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island or Utah as new adolescent vaccination mandates for these states are starting in the current school year (2015-16).

The team hopes to complete recruitment during February, so if you are interested, please contact Denise from InKlein Consulting directly at denise@inKleinConsulting.com or by phone at 215-527-0019.