Place Your Influenza Vaccine Orders For 2009-’10 Season

A News & Events entry posted on April 9, 2009

Henry H. Bernstein, D.O., FAAP, member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases recommends healthcare providers place their influenza vaccine orders now.

Believe it or not, it’s time to order influenza vaccine for next season. Continued national efforts are under way to improve supply, distribution and access to influenza vaccine and enable more children to receive influenza vaccine during the 2009-’10 season. In its guidance for the 2008-’09 influenza season, the Academy recommended for the first time that all children ages 6 months through 18 years be vaccinated routinely against influenza. With appropriate vaccination coverage among all children each year, it is anticipated that not only will influenza transmission among children be reduced, but influenza among their household contacts and within their communities will be reduced as well.

In practical terms, however, this expanded age recommendation also presents notable public health challenges:
- Will there be enough influenza vaccine to go around? Vaccine manufacturers are committed to these new recommendations and plan to increase production to ensure adequate supplies. Total production of influenza vaccine for the United States next year is anticipated to at least match the more than 140 million doses of vaccines produced this season.

- The increased need for vaccination most likely will exceed the office capacity of pediatricians and family physicians. While the Academy is committed to the medical home model and opposes retail based clinics, alternative vaccination venues, such as partnering with schools and community clinics, as well as administering vaccines at medical homes without a full medical check-up, are encouraged.

- Will this be cost-effective? Studies have pointed to a decrease in outpatient visits, antibiotic use, absenteeism from school and parent work loss in addition to a decline in flu cases and hospitalizations. However, more comprehensive outcome data on the direct and indirect economic costs and benefits of childhood immunization are being explored.

The Academy reminds pediatricians to consider the 2009-’10 recommendation when ordering influenza vaccine supply for next season and when developing strategies to improve vaccine uptake in individual practices and in your communities. Meanwhile, practitioners should give this year’s influenza vaccine to their patients into April. Every year, hundreds of thousands of doses of influenza vaccine go unused and are destroyed.

Source: http://aapnews.aappublications.org/