In 2022, CDC recommended catch-up hepatitis B vaccination of all adults through age 59 years and older adults with risk factors or who want to be vaccinated. In 2023, CDC recommended one-time hepatitis B infection screening of all adults. Integrating these two important recommendations into clinical practice poses unique challenges for healthcare providers.

This live, 1-hour webinar, Hepatitis B-Gone! Implementing Universal Adult Screening and Vaccination. Your Practical Questions Answered., will be hosted by Immunize.org tomorrow, July 13 at 3:00 p.m. (ET). Panelists will discuss the recommendations and your practical clinical questions about how to affect the policies in private and public healthcare settings. Widespread implementation of adult screening and catch-up vaccination brings within reach the goal of eliminating hepatitis B-related liver damage and cancer in the United States.

The panelists will be:

• Carolyn Wester, MD, MPH, Director of CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis
• Kelly Moore, MD, MPH, CEO of Immunize​.org
• L.J Tan, PhD, MS, Chief Policy and Partnership Officer of Immunize​.org

Dr. Wester and Dr. Moore are coauthors of the ACIP hepatitis B vaccination policy statement and longstanding champions of hepatitis B elimination.

Register now to watch this important session and get your practical questions answered.



This webinar was developed by Immunize​.org and was supported by Grant No. NH23IP922654 from CDC and an independent educational grant from VBI Vaccines. Its contents are solely the responsibility of Immunize​.org and do not necessarily represent the official views of either CDC or VBI Vaccines.

Immunize​.org’s social media program highlights our educational resources for today’s vaccinators. This week, our featured episode from the Ask the Experts Video Series is Live Vaccines for Contacts of Cancer Patient. This is available on our YouTube channel, along with our full collection of quick video answers to popular Ask the Experts questions.

Our social media channels feature our most popular printable resources, our Ask the Experts Video Series, and announcements important to frontline vaccinators. Like, follow, and share Immunize​.org’s social media accounts. Encourage colleagues and others interested in vaccination to do likewise:

• Facebook at ImmunizeOrg
• Instagram at ImmunizeOrg
• LinkedIn at Immunize.org
• Twitter at ImmunizeOrg
• YouTube at ImmunizeOrg

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The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) has been educating and engaging with the public, communities, and healthcare professionals about infectious diseases for five decades. 

NFID celebrated its 50th anniversary by unveiling its updated website, featuring a sleek new look and improved user experience. The improved design helps visitors explore and find timely and accurate information on specific diseases, upcoming events, the latest news, and tools and resources. 

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In this week's Spotlight, we highlight the Ask the Experts main page at Immunize​.org.

Our Ask the Experts main page offers more than a thousand timely questions on vaccines and vaccine administration answered by our experts. Topics include specific diseases and their vaccines as well as vaccine delivery guidance (e.g., administration, billing, documenting).

Immunize​.org's Ask the Experts main page leads you to 30 distinct web pages on a variety of topics with more than 1,200 common or challenging questions and answers (Q&As) about vaccines and their administration. Immunize​.org's team of experts includes Kelly L. Moore, MD, MPH (team lead), Carolyn B. Bridges, MD, FACP, and Iyabode Beysolow, MD, MPH.

New and updated Ask the Experts Q&As are published in special editions of IZ Express five times per year. If you have a question that may interest our readers, please send it to us using our online form. Those who follow Immunize​.org on social media can also enjoy and share video versions of some of our most popular Ask the Experts questions.

These recent articles convey the potential risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the importance of vaccination.

• New York Times: Three Vaccines for Fall: What You Need to Know (7/5/23)
• New York Times: Pro-Vaccine Views Are Winning. Don’t Fear the Skeptics. (7/5/23)
• NPR: The Doctor Who Warned the World of the Mpox Outbreak of 2022 Is Still Worried (7/5/23)
• The Conversation: Vaccine Hesitancy Is One of the Greatest Threats to Global Health and the Pandemic Has Made It Worse (7/4/23)
• Cure: 'Reassuring' Findings Show That Flu Shot Is Safe during Immunotherapy (6/30/23)

Immunize​.org updated three standing orders templates, adding QR codes linking to the online versions of the documents. Additional changes to the resources include:

• Standing Orders for Administering Haemophilus influenzae Type B Vaccine to Adults: Small non-technical edits were made throughout
• Standing Orders for Administering Human Papillomavirus Vaccine to Adults: Vaccination during pregnancy was clarified to match CDC’s wording as “not recommended” (rather than a “precaution”): the recommendation to delay until after pregnancy is unchanged. The vaccine administration chart was edited slightly.
• Standing Orders for Administering Meningococcal B Vaccine to Adolescents and Adults: A precaution for latex sensitivity was added for MenB-4C

Related Links

• Immunize​.org: Standing Orders Templates for Administering Vaccines main page
• Immunize​.org: Handouts for Patients and Staff main page, where you can sort materials by topic, vaccine, or language
• Immunize​.org: Educational Materials for Patients and Staff—an alphabetical listing of more than 230 ready-to-print staff educational materials and patient handouts

Immunize​.org posted eight translations of the new interim Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Information Statement (VIS). 

Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (view in English):

• Arabic
• Bengali
• Chinese–Simplified
• Haitian Creole
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish PDF and RTF 
• Vietnamese

Check the version dates of your office copies of newly updated translations. Translations of previous VIS versions should be discarded now that translations of the current versions are available.

• Immunize​.org: Pneumococcal Conjugate (PCV) VIS main page
• Immunize​.org: Vaccine Information Statements main page
• CDC: What's New with VISs main page
• CDC: Current VISs main page 

Voices for Vaccines (VFV) posted a new entry in its Vax Talk podcast series: The Real Truth about Vaccines featuring Twitter personality, The Real Truther. A description from the VFV web page appears below.

Lately, Twitter has become a cesspool of the worst humans spreading the worst misinformation. Except for one bright spot: The Real Truther. We invited The Real Truther to our podcast to discuss his noble pursuit of The Real Truth and to talk with RFK Jr. (or a proxy for RFK Jr.)



Related Links

• Voices for Vaccines: Resources main page
• Voices for Vaccines podcast page

Download Immunize​.org’s free 142-page book on adult vaccination to help build your program and train your team: Vaccinating Adults: A Step-by-Step Guide (Guide).

 

This thorough "how to" guide on adult vaccination provides easy-to-use, practical information covering all essential activities. It helps vaccine providers enhance their existing adult vaccination services or introduce them into any clinical setting.

The Guide is available to download/print either by chapter or in its entirety free at www.immunize.org/guide. The National Vaccine Program Office and CDC both supported the development of the Guide and provided early technical review.

The Guide is a valuable resource to assist providers in increasing adult vaccination rates. Be sure to get a copy today!

Please note: this guide was produced in 2017, before the COVID-19 era, and reflects the recommendations of that time.

Related Links

• Vaccinating Adults: A Step-by-Step Guide main page, permitting download of entire Guide (142 pages, PDF)
• View the table of contents and individual chapters (PDF):
  • Table of Contents
  • Step 1: Getting Started
  • Step 2: Setting Up for Vaccination Services
  • Step 3: Vaccine Storage and Handling
  • Step 4: Deciding Whom to Vaccinate
  • Step 5: Administering Vaccines
  • Step 6: Documentation and Related Issues
  • Step 7A: Financial Considerations
  • Step 7B: How to Bill for Adult Immunizations
• Immunize​.org’s educational materials (handouts) on adult immunization

CDC published Status of New Vaccine Introduction—Worldwide, 2016–2021 on July 7 in MMWR. A portion of the summary appears below. 

The global Immunization Agenda 2021–2030 (IA2030) aims to increase equitable access to and use of new and existing vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption to routine immunization services. . . .

By 2021, 17% of countries worldwide provided all eight World Health Organization–recommended new and underutilized vaccines in their routine immunization schedules. The number of new vaccines added to a national immunization program declined sharply at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 48 in 2019 to 15 in 2020. . . .

To achieve IA2030 targets, increased efforts to accelerate introductions of new and underutilized vaccines are urgently needed to facilitate equitable access, including to vaccines delivered beyond the first year of life.



Access the MMWR article in HTML or PDF.

Related Link

• MMWR's main page provides access to the MMWR family of publications