News Updates

A revised policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says vaccines need to be promoted more aggressively to increase immunization rates, given new challenges such as higher vaccine costs, inadequate payment procedures, more vaccines and vaccine combinations, shortages caused by manufacturing or delivery problems, and a public anti-vaccination movement not supported by scientific evidence. Renewed emphasis on accepted guidelines is crucial to boosting immunization coverage among children and adolescents, and the AAP wants health care providers to create vaccine reminder systems and other opportunities to encourage immunization. Additionally, it is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other agencies, and healthcare providers to ensure parents understand that vaccines are safe.

A preliminary analysis of the swine flu vaccine, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows that instances of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) were similar to the seasonal flu vaccine, indicating the vaccine's safety. Covering 10 states, the analysis determined that 27 out of 12 million vaccinated individuals came down with the paralyzing nerve disease. The data suggests there were 0.8 excess cases of GBS per 1 million vaccinations. The rate for the seasonal flu vaccine is one extra person per 1 million vaccinated individuals. "Ongoing CDC research continues to show that the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine is safe," said CDC spokeswoman Rosa Herrera. "Data show that the vaccine's safety profile looks similar to the time-tested profile of seasonal flu vaccine."