Pearls Summer 2023
| Dane County Immunization Coalition Updates General Membership Meeting Mark your calendars! Our next general membership meeting will be held on virtually on Tuesday, August 15, 2023 from 12pm to 1:30pm. Watch your email in the coming weeks for the agenda which will have the Zoom link. For those of you who like to plan ahead, the next general membership meeting will be held from 12pm to 1:30pm on Tuesday, November 21. Vaccination Event The DCIC will be working with local partners to provide vaccine education, childhood immunizations, and a voucher for a free pair of shoes for children who receive a vaccination at the “Back 2 School Free Haircutz” event hosted by JP Hair Design. The 15th annual event will be held on August 27, 2023 at the Alliant Energy Center and will bring together over 30 barbers from across Dane County to provide free haircuts to children entering grades K-12 with a goal of providing 1,000 free haircuts. DCIC will set up a booth at the event and encourage parents/guardians to check to see if their children are up to date on recommended vaccinations. Each child will be verified for vaccination needs using the Wisconsin Immunization Registry, and then offered the ability to receive those vaccines at the event. If a child does need a vaccine and the parent/guardian agrees, then appropriate consent forms and insurance information will be collected, and the child will be provided the vaccine(s) by a licensed medical professional. DCIC will provide an incentive in the form of a gift card or voucher for shoes to each child that receives a vaccine at the event. n addition to the event being an opportunity to provide vaccines, DCIC will distribute vaccine educational materials to parents/guardians of children attending the event and be available to answer questions parents/guardians may have about vaccines. Immunization Updates FDA Approves First Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccines In May 2023, the FDA approved the first two vaccines for preventing lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by RSV in individuals age 60 and older. The newly licensed vaccines will be distributed with the brand names Arexvy (manufactured by GSK) and Abrysvo (manufactured by Pfizer). In June 2023, ACIP recommended that adults ages 60 and older may receive a single dose of RSV vaccine based on shared clinical decision-making with a health care professional. In the ongoing clinical trial leading to its approval, Arexvy significantly reduced the risk of developing RSV-associated LRTD by 82.6% and reduced the risk of developing severe RSV-associated LRTD by 94.1%. Similarly, Abrysvo was found to reduce the risk of developing RSV-associated LRTD with two or more symptoms by 66.7% and with three or more symptoms by 85.7% in its ongoing clinical trial. The most commonly reported side effects for both vaccines included injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint stiffness/pain. The CDC estimates that RSV leads to approximately 60,000-120,000 hospitalizations and 6,000-10,000 deaths among adults age 65 and older each year. RSV is a seasonal virus, with peak activity typically occurring each fall or winter. Health Equity HHS Releases LGBTQ+ Community Toolkit to Increase Confidence and Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccines The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released LGBTQ+ Community Toolkit (view in Spanish). This toolkit provides resources that aim to increase confidence in and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in the LGBTQ+ community, including culturally tailored materials from the HHS COVID-19 public education campaign and its team of multicultural experts. HHS Office of Minority Health Releases Resources on Health Literacy and Limited English Proficiency The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released Health Literacy and Limited English Proficiency: 2023 Reading List. This collection of free resources is focused on health literacy and limited English proficiency and contains three sections: factsheets and toolkits for consumers, reports and recommendations for professionals, and peer-reviewed journal articles. The Association of Reported Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Health Care with COVID-19 Vaccination Status and Intent In the April 21, 2023 issue of MMWR, the CDC published The Association of Reported Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Health Care with COVID-19 Vaccination Status and Intent. As summarized in the study, the data collected from April 22, 2021 to November 26, 2022 showed that “adults reporting experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination in health care had a significantly higher prevalence of being unvaccinated against COVID-19 overall and among most racial and ethnic groups.” The study also states: “Strategies to address inequitable experiences (discrimination) include increasing awareness by health care providers of patients’ potential negative health care experiences and known historical mistreatment and incorporating this sensitivity into their patient interactions. This action might foster patient trust, improve adherence to recommended health interventions, and reduce some COVID-19-related health disparities.” Promoting Immunization Close The Gap! Start Your Back-to-School Vaccine Programs! Back-to-School vaccine catch-up programs should start now, and continue all summer long! According to the CDC, kindergarten vaccination coverage steadily declined for all vaccines over the past two school years by 95% to 93% nationally, reaching the lowest national vaccine coverage in the last decade. Some jurisdictions even saw a decrease of as much as 10%. In 2022, several communities experienced measles outbreaks and another community reported a case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated individual. These events underscore the importance of addressing this gap in your practice and community. Visit the CDC’s website Catch Up on Recommended Vaccinations for more information and materials on promoting catching-up on routine childhood vaccination in your community. CDC Encourages Providing Guidance for Measles Prevention to International Travelers On June 21, 2023, the CDC issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) message to remind clinicians and public health officials to provide guidance for measles prevention to international travelers. They also encourages clinicians to be on alert for cases of measles in their practice. Measles is extremely contagious, with one infected person being able to infect 9 out of 10 of their unvaccinated close contacts. As of June 8, 2023, the CDC had been notified of 16 confirmed U.S. cases of measles across 11 jurisdictions, with 88% of those cases being linked to international travel. Most of these cases were among children who had not received measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination. The CDC recommends all U.S. residents be up to date on their MMR vaccinations, especially prior to international travel regardless of the destination. Promoting the Importance of Meningitis Vaccinations Multiple resources to support the promotion of both MenACWY and meningitis B vaccinations have been shared recently. Immunize.org’s www.Give2MenACWY.org website promotes the importance of adolescent vaccination, including the recommended MenACWY vaccine booster dose at age 16. Available resources include the 2020 ACIP Meningococcal Vaccine Recommendations, the updated Algorithm for MenACWY Immunization in Adolescents 11 through 18 Years of Age, and much more.The Meningitis B Action Project offers a wide range of meningitis B educational materials and videos for parents, students, and health care professionals, including Spanish translations. Due to the pandemic, many teens are behind on vaccines, so vaccine outreach regarding meningitis and other recommended vaccines within your community is more important than ever. In the Media CHOP’s Vaccine Education Center Presents Marion Gruber: Preparedness Is Prevention Documentary Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) Vaccine Education Center (VEC) presents Marion Gruber: Preparedness Is Prevention, a 30-minute documentary featuring Marion Gruber, PhD, MS. Dr. Gruber was director of the Office of Vaccines Research at the FDA and is now vice president of public health and regulatory science at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). In this documentary, Dr. Gruber and several of her colleagues address pandemics, outbreaks, and the importance of preparing for the next health emergency while describing their efforts to ensure that life-saving vaccines were available during recent public health emergencies. Health Literacy Wisconsin Releases Community Views on COVID-19 VaccinesHealth Literacy Wisconsin invites you to view Community Views on COVID-19 Vaccines, a 10-minute video sharing conversations with people across Wisconsin to learn their views on COVID-19 vaccines. Health Literacy Wisconsin shares: These are personal opinions. They may differ from your own. We invite you to simply listen. |