Bookmark
Share this site
Print this page
Site mapHealth News
ACIP Recommendations for the Upcoming Flu Season
[Posted 7/29/05] The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has updated the recommendations regarding influenza immunization practices for the 2005–2006 flu season. Priority groups for vaccination with inactivated influenza vaccine for the 2004–2005 season included: all children aged 6–23 months, adults 65 and older, anyone aged 2 to 64 with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, residents of nursing homes and long–term care facilities, healthcare workers involved in direct patient care, out–of–home caregivers, and household contacts of children younger than 6 months, and those aged 6 months to 18 years on chronic aspirin therapy. These groups remain target groups for the 2005–2006 season.
Principal updates include the following:
- Add to the priority group persons with medical conditions that can compromise respiratory function or increase the risk of aspiration such as spinal cord injury, seizure disorder or cognitive dysfunction.
- Emphasize the need for annual influenza vaccination among healthcare workers and encourage employers to provide the vaccine using approaches that maximize immunization rates.
- Use both inactivated and live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) vaccines in an effort to immunize as many people in the target groups as possible. When inactivated vaccine is in short supply, the use of LAIV–especially in healthy groups such as the healthcare workers–is a feasible method of freeing up inactivated vaccine for high risk groups.
- CDC and other agencies will monitor the vaccine supply during the manufacturing period and will issue recommendations regarding tiered timing for the different priority groups at a later date.
According to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, vaccination rates in 2003 for people 65 and older were at 65.5%, 36.8% for those aged between 50 and 64, 40.1% for healthcare workers, and 34.2% for persons with high–risk conditions aged 18–64 years.
Related Link: