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ACIP
Recommends Adolescent Vaccination for Tetanus,
Diphtheria and Pertussis Vaccine
ACIP (Advisory Committee
on Immunization Practices)
June 30, 2005
A
panel of immunization experts meeting in Atlanta
today (June 30, 2005) voted to recommend newly
licensed booster tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis
(whooping cough) vaccines (Tdap) to help reduce
the number of cases of pertussis among adolescents.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices (ACIP) to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that
adolescents 11 and 12 years of age be given
Tdap in place of the tetanus-diphtheria (Td)
booster currently given to adolescents. The
committee also recommended that Tdap be given
to adolescents 13 through 18 who missed the
11 to 12 year dose of Td, and adolescents 11
to 18 who have already been vaccinated with
Td are encouraged to receive a dose of Tdap
to further protect against the pertussis.
“Reported cases of pertussis
have been increasing dramatically over the
past few years,” said Dr. Steve Cochi,
acting director of CDC’s National Immunization
Program. “Treatment of pertussis is effective
only if given early, before symptoms can be
recognized as pertussis. Therefore, vaccination
is the best way to prevent suffering from pertussis.
This recommendation is an important step in
reducing this potentially serious disease.”
Most reported pertussis cases
among adolescents and adults occur because
of decline in protective immunity over time.
Immunity against pertussis wanes five to ten
years after the last childhood vaccination.
Infants acquire pertussis,
often from siblings and parents at home, when
they are still too young to be vaccinated against
the disease, or when not yet vaccinated. Children
are recommended to be vaccinated against diphtheria,
tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) at two, four,
six and 15 to 18 months of age, and at four
to six years of age.
“Pertussis can be very
severe in infants. It is important that parents
vaccinate their children, on time to prevent
this serious and potentially life-threatening
disease in infants,” said Cochi.
The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) recently licensed two Tdap vaccines for
adolescents in the United States. BOOSTRIX®,
manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals,
was licensed by the FDA on May 3, 2005 for
use in adolescents 10 through 18 years of age.
The second, ADACEL™, manufactured by
sanofi pasteur, was licensed on June 10, 2005
for persons 11 through 64 years of age. These
are the first pertussis vaccines licensed for
use in adolescents and adults.
The committee did not make
a recommendation for use of Tdap among adults.
Background information on adult immunization
was presented and the committee will consider
a vote on adult immunization at future ACIP
meetings to allow members more time to review
adult pertussis immunization data.
Reported pertussis cases increased
throughout the 1990s and increases have continued
to the present. Cases of pertussis were reduced
by more than 90 percent following introduction
of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP)
vaccine in the 1940s. Pertussis cases have
increased from a low of 1,020 cases in 1976
to more than 19,000 cases in 2004, a 40-year
high. Reported pertussis-related deaths among
infants increased from about ten per year in
the 1990s to about 20 per year during this
decade.
For
more information on pertussis visit www.cdc.gov/nip/diseases/pertussis
The
ACIP, consisting of 15 members appointed by
the Secretary of the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), advises the director
of CDC and Secretary of HHS on control of vaccine-preventable
disease and vaccine usage. Recommendations
of the ACIP become CDC policy when they are
accepted by the director of CDC and are published
in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report (MMWR).
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