CDC Recommends Universal Flu Vaccination

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a comprehensive update on seasonal flu vaccination, which includes the new universal recommendation for everyone except infants younger than 6 months old. In 2009, the CDC’s seasonal flu vaccination recommendation covered 85 percent of the population. This latest expansion, which includes all healthy, nonpregnant adults ages 18 to 49, will help to address two problems: 1) flu complications can occur, even in healthy people, and 2) many adults with underlying conditions such as diabetes and asthma don’t consider themselves at increased risk.

The CDC’s recommendations also include its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recent advice that children ages 6 months through 8 years who have not received at least one dose of pandemic H1N1 vaccine should receive two doses of the trivalent vaccine for the upcoming flu season, which includes the pandemic strain. The latest recommendations also say adults age 65 and older can receive either the standard seasonal flu vaccines or the new high-dose version made by Sanofi Pasteur (see the related story about the new high-dose flu vaccine on page 28).

New strategies for pitching the new universal flu vaccine recommendations also are being tested by the CDC on focus groups, which include both the public and medical providers. The campaign is available on the Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases (PKIDs) website at www.pkids.org. According to Richard Quartarone, a media and communication officer with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, research has shown that vaccine messages have the most impact when they come from sources people trust, “and healthcare providers are whom they trust the most.”