On March 31, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all adults aged 19-59 years receive a vaccination for hepatitis B.

It also added that adults aged 60 years or older without known risk factors for hepatitis B may get vaccinated.

The agency earlier recommended the vaccination for all infants and children under 19 and adults aged 60 years or older with known risk factors.

The CDC said it wants to expand vaccinations because, after decades of progress, new hepatitis B infections are increasing among adults. Acute hepatitis B infections among adults lead to chronic hepatitis B disease in an estimated 2%-6% of cases and can result in cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death.

There are many vaccine-preventable, potentially life-threatening infectious diseases for which the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends routine immunizations for children from birth on; many of these vaccines should be administered within the first 24 months of life. Yet vaccine hesitancy among parents remains a very real problem, leaving a significant percentage of young children unvaccinated. For example, a lack of confidence in vaccines in several places in the U.S. has led to outbreaks of measles and pertussis.

There are many reasons why parents are hesitant to get their kids vaccinated, including misinformation, lack of insurance, transportation issues, and missed opportunities to learn more about vaccines, such as during well and sick visits. To investigate this issue, researchers from the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), evaluated the association between parents’ vaccine hesitancy and their children receiving DTaP, rotavirus vaccine, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), and the combined 7-vaccine series.

A vaccine for eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV), western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) was found to be safe, well-tolerated and induced a neutralizing antibody response in adult volunteers, according to newly published results from a Phase 1 clinical trial. The vaccine candidate was developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID also sponsored and funded the clinical trial, which was conducted at the Emory Vaccine Center's Hope Clinic, part of Emory University in Atlanta.

EEEV, WEEV, and VEEV are spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Horses are also susceptible to infection, but horses cannot transmit the viruses directly to humans. Infections in humans are rare but can lead to flu-like symptoms and, in some cases, severe neurological damage or death. The viruses have caused recurrent, small outbreaks in North, Central, and South America, including an EEEV outbreak in 2019 in the northeastern United States that led to 38 confirmed cases and 15 deaths.

This module was developed by the Vaccine Education Center and the Office of Community Engagement at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), in partnership with the Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (PA-AAP), Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition (PAIC), and Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH).

This free web-based, interactive session offers a two-hour training divided into three parts:  

Part 1: Details the dangers of COVID-19 disease, explains the US system to authorize and approve vaccines, and highlights the safety & effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

Part 2: Explores vaccine communication best practices.

Part 3: Reviews the module, offers additional resources, and explains how to receive continuing education credit or a certificate of attendance for training requirements. Continuing education credits are available for physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. 

This module was developed for adult and pediatric providers, immunization champions, and community members. The module provides a better understanding of the facts around COVID-19 disease, how the vaccine approval process works, and how to communicate effectively about these topics so that stakeholders — and their constituents — have a solid, or reinforced, urgency regarding what the receipt of vaccines can do to protect people from COVID-19. 

Like adults, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted the lives of children, affecting their academic life and overall well-being. Moreover, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), necessitating protection via vaccination. Subsequently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued provisional emergency use authorization (EUA) for the mRNA-1273 vaccine for children in countries outside the US.

The current phase II-III clinical trial study, termed the KIDCove trial, was completed in two parts. Part one of the trial was open-label for dose selection, while part two was a blinded, placebo trial evaluating the expansion of the selected dose.

The authors noted only low-grade, transient adverse events in 4016 children who received a 50-μg dose. These adverse events commonly included injection-site pain, headache, and fatigue. By the cut-off date of the present trial, the authors observed no vaccine-related serious adverse events in children. There were no signs of MIS-C, myocarditis, or pericarditis.