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CDC Division of Media Relations (404) 639-3286 |
This article reports on new CDC pediatric influenza vaccination coverage data from the 2004-2005 season the first year the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended all children 6-23 months of age be immunized. While the influenza immunization rate for children aged 6-23 months nearly doubled from the previous season, the percentage of fully vaccinated children remained low, reinforcing increased efforts to improve pediatric vaccination rates and ongoing monitoring of vaccination coverage among young children. In addition, the article reports that influenza vaccination coverage rates for people 65 years of age and older were lower among persons surveyed in 2005 (approximately 63 percent) than among persons surveyed the previous year (approximately 68 percent). Pneumococcal vaccination rates in this age group essentially remained the same from 2004 to 2005, at slightly under 64 percent (63.4 percent to 63.7 percent). Both vaccination coverage levels remain well below the Healthy People 2010 objective of 90 percent.
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CDC Division of Media Relations (404) 639-3286 |
Continued efforts to increase influenza vaccination among adults aged 65 years and older are needed to meet public health goals and protect people at risk of serious complications or death from influenza. Every year, approximately one in three adults 65 and older is not vaccinated for influenza. All persons 65 and older are at increased risk for serious influenza-related complications, and should make getting an influenza vaccination a priority every year. In 2004, influenza vaccination rates for this age group ranged from 35 percent in Puerto Rico to 79 percent in Colorado -- the median rate for all states was 68 percent. The 2005 findings were similar even though vaccination rates were somewhat lower due to the vaccine shortage in fall 2004. One of the Healthy People 2010 objectives is for 90 percent of adults 65 and older to be vaccinated for influenza. To help achieve this goal, health-care providers should continue to offer influenza vaccine through December and throughout the influenza season, even after influenza activity has been documented in the community.
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CDC Division of Media Relations (404) 639-3286 |
Promotion of appropriate handwashing and diapering practices can prevent the spread of shigellosis and obviate the need for treatment with antibiotics an important finding because Shigella bacteria are now commonly resistant to the antibiotics most frequently used for treatment among children. In the United States, Shigella bacteria causes an estimated 450,000 cases of gastroenteritis each year, mostly among children less than 5 years old. Shigellosis is spread from person to person but can be prevented by washing hands with soap before cooking or eating and after using the toilet or changing diapers. In many states, children with shigellosis are excluded from daycare center until they are asymptomatic and are no longer shedding Shigella bacteria in their stool. Although antibiotics are not required for this generally mild disease, they are often prescribed to shorten the duration of illness and reduce the infectious period in day care center attendees. Infection with Shigella sonnei that is resistant to ampicillin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, antibiotics commonly used to treat children, has become more common during the past decade. Given the current problems with resistance to these antibiotics, uncertainties associated with use of other antibiotics to treat shigellosis among children, and the lack of an appropriate vaccine, public health measures should focus on prevention of shigellosis outbreaks through appropriate hygiene practices including careful handwashing and diapering practices in daycare centers and homes.
Department of Health and Human Services
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