From MMWR: childhood & 65+ vaccination rates, 2006-07 adult schedule, and Menactra safety update

A great deal of news on vaccines and vaccination efforts has appeared in recent issues of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Here are some items of note:

• "Childhood Influenza Vaccination Coverage -- United States, 2004-05 Influenza Season" and "Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination Coverage Among Persons >65 Years -- United States, 2004-05." With flu cases starting (very slowly) to appear, these two pieces offer some data on the effectiveness of efforts to vaccinate two populations at higher risk of influenza-related complications. For children, the headline is that young children (19-35 months) had a substantially higher vaccination rate in the 04-05 season than for the previous year -- likely attributable to stronger ACIP recommendations. However, the overall percentage of fully vaccinated children in this age group was still very low (17.8%). For 65+ adults, the reverse phenomenon is true: both flu and pneumococcal vaccination rates are over 60%, but flu vaccination rates in 2005 were 4% lower than a year earlier. (The MMWR story notes that all of these numbers are well below the goal of 90% included in Healthy People 2010.)

• Better news can be found in this report, "Vaccination Coverage Among Children Entering School, 2005-2006 School Year." Compiling the latest data available, a editorial note accompanying the report explains, "More than half of reporting states indicate that they have already reached the Healthy People 2010 goal of >95% coverage for each of the vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP); the remaining states are making progress toward this goal."

• The 2006-2007 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule, approved by the ACIP at their June meeting, has been published. Particularly because of efforts made at simplifying the schedule's design, the document is a great source for a general overview of recommended vaccinations in the 18+ population.

• One final item provides an update on reports of cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) among recipients of Menactra, Sanofi Pasteur's meningococcal vaccine. (We've written previously about this story in April.) A total of 17 cases have been reported with a suspected link to Menactra vaccination. As the report explains, analysis of these cases suggests a slightly increased risk of GBS among Menactra recipients, but the risk of meningococcus itself is among the reasons why no change in the current recommendation is being made at this time.
  

CDC update on possible link between meningitis vaccine and Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Today's issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR -- the widely-read CDC infectious disease publication) includes an update on a series of cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome among college-age students shortly after receiving meningococcal vaccine. Below are excerpts from the CDC summary of the report. The bottom line: It's unclear whether the vaccine is responsible for the GBS cases, further study is needed, and no changes for the time being regarding the recommendation status of the vaccine.

"In October 2005, a possible association between Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) and receipt of meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4)...was reported. GBS is a serious neurologic disorder involving inflammatory demyelination of the peripheral nerves. At the time of the first report, five confirmed cases of GBS after receipt of MCV4 had been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). During the 4 months since, three additional confirmed cases of GBS have been reported...

Because available evidence neither proves nor disproves a causal relation between MCV4 and GBS, further monitoring and studies are ongoing within VAERS and the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD). CDC continues to recommend use of MCV4 for persons for whom vaccination is indicated; the additional reported cases have not resulted in any change to that recommendation."