MMWR News Synopsis for August 4, 2016

 

Disparities in Adult Cigarette Smoking — United States, 2002–2005 and 2010–2013

CDC Media Relations
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Proven interventions, including increasing the price of tobacco products, coupled with evidence-based cessation services, comprehensive smoke-free policies, high-impact media campaigns, and promotion of cessation treatment in clinical settings, are effective strategies in reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and tobacco-related disease and death in all racial/ethnic populations. To assess the prevalence of, and changes in, cigarette smoking among persons ages ≥18 years in six racial/ethnic populations and 10 select subgroups in the U.S., CDC analyzed self-reported data collected during 2002–2005 and 2010–2013 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and compared differences between the two periods. During 2010–2013, the overall prevalence of cigarette smoking among the racial/ethnic populations and subgroups ranged from 38.9 percent for American Indian/American Nativesto 7.6 percent for Chinese and Asian Indians. Differences might be due, in part, to variations in socioeconomic status, acculturation, targeted advertising, price of tobacco products, and practices related to the acceptability of tobacco use across population groups. These findings highlight the importance of looking at tobacco use estimates by smaller racial/ethnic subgroups and by sex to better understand and address disparities in tobacco use among U.S. adults.

 

CDC Grand Rounds: Adolescence — Preparing for Lifelong Health and Wellness

CDC Media Relations
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Public health’s role in understanding and addressing adolescent health is to provide adolescents with effective, accurate, and developmentally appropriate health promotion and disease prevention education and comprehensive health services. Such efforts require strategies and approaches that engage adolescents in the settings where they live, learn, and receive health care. Approximately 42 million adolescents ages 10-19 years, or about 13 percent of the population, live in the United States. Health in adulthood is often determined by health risk behaviors established during adolescence. Preventing the initiation of potentially harmful behaviors during adolescence can have lifelong health benefits. Supporting adolescents’ health requires parents, schools, health care systems, and communities to help youth be healthy throughout their formative years. Family-based approaches can maximize the positive influences that parenting has on children by building parents’ knowledge, skills, and confidence in communicating about risky behavior. Schools can offer quality health and physical education, nutrition and health services, and safe and supportive environments: all can help produce healthier students who are ready to learn. Health services can provide quality primary care services that are specifically tailored to the needs of adolescents: readily available and accessible, confidential, and welcoming and youth friendly.

Update on Vaccine-Derived Polioviruses — Worldwide, January 2015–May 2016

CDC Media Relations
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The ultimate goal of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the end of all poliovirus circulation. Circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs), biologically equivalent to wild polioviruses, emerge in settings of low population immunity and can sustain long-term circulation. The risk of immunodeficiency-associated vaccine-derived polioviruse (iVDPV) emergence will continue as long as oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) is used. The switch from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in April 2016 is the first step in phasing out the use of all OPV, setting the stage for a subsequent total worldwide shift from OPV to injectable inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs), are genetic divergent strains from OPV that fall into three categories: 1) cVDPVs from outbreaks, 2) iVDPVs from patients with primary immunodeficiencies, and 3) ambiguous VDPVs (aVDPVs) that cannot be more definitively identified. During January 2015–May 2016, Myanmar, Laos, Ukraine, and Guinea had new cVDPV outbreaks and Nigeria and Pakistan had sharply reduced cVDPV2 circulation. Twenty-one newly identified persons in 10 countries were found to excrete iVDPVs. Because >94 percent of cVDPVs since 2006 and 66 percent of iVDPVs since OPV introduction are type 2, WHO coordinated worldwide replacement of trivalent OPV with bivalent OPV (types 1 and 3) in April 2016.

Environmental Isolation of Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus after Interruption of Wild Poliovirus Transmission — Nigeria, 2016

CDC Media Relations
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Nigeria continues to make considerable progress toward polio eradication certification; however, recent VDPV isolation in Borno State highlights the difficulties of polio eradication in parts of the country affected by conflicts. Continued efforts to identify and vaccinate unreached children and to improve surveillance in and around Borno State remain an urgent public health priority. On April 29, 2016, laboratory-confirmed vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2), a type of the oral polio vaccine virus that can cause paralysis, was reported in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. Further laboratory tests showed that the virus had been circulating undetected for about two years. Borno State, located in North East Nigeria, has experienced armed insurgency for the past seven years, which has limited polio eradication activities such as surveillance and immunization. The Nigeria Polio Emergency Operations Center started outbreak response activities following the reports of the VDPV.

Notes from the Field

• Fatal Infection Associated with Equine Exposure — King County, Washington, 2016

QuickStats:

• Percentage of Preterm Births Among Teens Aged 15–19 Years, by Race and Hispanic Origin — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2007–2014

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES