MMWR – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

1. Injuries from Batteries Among Children Aged <13 Years — United States, 1995–2010

Consumer Product Safety Commission
Press office
301-504-7908

Coin-sized button batteries used in many consumer products may cause life-threatening effects if accessed and ingested by young children. Ingestion of button batteries, especially coin-sized (greater than or equal to 20 mm), can result in serious complications or death. From 1997 to 2010, an estimated 40,400 children less than 13 years old were treated in emergency departments for battery-related injuries. Seventy-two percent of these were among children less than or equal to 4 years old with 10 percent requiring hospitalization. Fourteen battery-related fatalities were identified, all among children less than 4 years of which 12 of the 14 deaths involved button batteries.  Given the rising use of button batteries, health-care providers should be aware of the injuries associated with ingestion, public health and health-care providers should counsel caregivers on the dangers of exposures, and parents should keep products containing button batteries (e.g., remote controls) away from young children unless the batteries are secured safely.

2. Increase in Quitline Calls and Smoking Cessation Website Visitors During a National Tobacco Education Campaign — March 19–June 10, 2012

CDC
Division of News & Electronic Media
404-639-3286

An evidence-based, emotionally evocative national tobacco education ad campaign can substantially increase calls to state quitlines and the number of visitors to a website that helps people quit smoking. During March 19–June 10, 2012, CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers (TIPS) campaign, the first federally funded, nationwide, tobacco education ad campaign, let smokers know that quitting assistance is available by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW, a portal that links callers to their state tobacco quitlines; or visiting www.smokefree.gov, a federal website that helps people quit smoking. The analysis in this report compares quitline calls and unique website visitors during the 12-week ad campaign with the same time period in 2011.  This year-to-year comparison shows the campaign generated 207,519 additional calls, a 132 percent increase over calls the previous year; and 510,571 additional unique website visitors, a 428 percent increase over visitors the previous year. Altogether, compared with 2011 data, 718,090 additional calls and unique visitors were received during the campaign. This comparison adds to findings from previous preliminary analyses, which used comparison data from the week preceding the start of the campaign and showed similar results.

3.National and State Vaccination Coverage Among Adolescents Aged 13–17 Years — United States, 2011

CDC
Division of News & Electronic Media
404-639-3286

Parents, clinicians and partners can all help prevent HPV-related cancers. In 2011, coverage rates for 13-17 year olds increased for the vaccines that prevent pertussis and meningococcal disease. For the third year in a row, coverage rates only increased half as much for girls for one dose of the vaccine that prevents HPV. Like the previous year, poor and minority teen girls who start the three-dose HPV series have lower rates of finishing it. Coverage was also lower for younger girls, meaning 11 and 12 year olds are not getting the vaccine as recommended.  If HPV vaccine was given every time another adolescent vaccine was given, HPV vaccine coverage rates would be much higher. Addressing these missed opportunities would increase the number of adolescents who could be protected from many HPV-related cancers.

4. Measles — Horn of Africa, 2010–2011

CDC
Division of News & Electronic Media
404-639-3286

Severe drought, famine, war, large-scale population movements, and overcrowded refugee camps led to a complex emergency in the Horn of Africa during 2010–2011. A large measles outbreak occurred in Somalia, and large influxes of refugees from southern and central areas of Somalia into camps in Kenya and Ethiopia near the Somalia borders led to measles virus transmission among refugees and to outbreaks in Ethiopia and Kenya. To prevent large measles outbreaks and ultimately reach measles elimination, vaccination strategies must be implemented to achieve and maintain uniformly high 2-dose measles vaccination coverage to reach the 93 percent–95 percent population immunity threshold that can provide herd immunity in refugee settings and in all countries.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES