I Raise the Rates! January Edition

In this edition of I Raise the Rates (IRtR), you will find a variety of new resources from several public health partners, educational opportunities, and a brief selection of popular media articles related to immunization.

Free Coaching Opportunity

Apply Now to Join I Raise the Rates

Apply now for the opportunity to receive free coaching to Increase Adult and Influenza Immunization Rates

ACP is recruiting internal medicine and subspecialty practices and residency groups to participate in the I Raise the Rates quality improvement programs to increase influenza and adult immunization rates. ACP’s I Raise the Rates program, which is supported by funding from CDC, provides free QI education and virtual coaching support from ACP Advance expert coaches to increase adult immunization coverage. The program also offers access to a virtual learning community, tailored educational offerings, including free registration to QI precourse at the 2024 ACP Internal Medicine meeting in Boston, MA as well as opportunity to earn CME and MOC for program participants.

Click to Apply

New Adult Immunization Video Series from ACP

NEW video series from ACP providing highlights from ACIP’s 2024 Adult Immunization Schedule!

The following videos from Sandra Fyhofer, MD, MACP explains what’s new in 2024 including:

To review the recommendations in depth, please visit Annals of Internal Medicine

Register Now!

ACP/Annals of Internal Medicine Forum: Putting Adult Vaccine Recommendations into Action

Wednesday, February 7, 2024 from 3:30pmm-5:00pm EST

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has released its 2024 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule, which includes four new vaccines. The schedule is an important reference document for physicians who are struggling to increase vaccination rates in clinical practice, because many adults are becoming lost to misinformation and distrust of public health. In this forum, our panel of experts will clarify confusion around the vaccination recommendations and duration of their respective protection and discuss communication strategies to stress the importance of being up to date on immunizations with their patients. They will also address questions submitted before the event.

Click to Register

Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report (CDC FluView)

Key Points

Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated in most parts of the country.
Key flu indicators have decreased or remained stable nationally for three weeks. CDC will continue to monitor for a second period of increased influenza activity that often occurs after the winter holidays
Outpatient respiratory illness has been above baseline nationally since November and is above baseline in all 10 HHS regions.
The number of weekly flu hospital admissions has decreased for three consecutive weeks.

Stay Alert for Measles Cases

“Between December 1, 2023 and January 23, 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified of 23 confirmed U.S. cases of measles, including seven direct importations of measles by international travelers and two outbreaks with more than five cases each. Most of these cases were among children and adolescents who had not received a measles-containing vaccine (MMR or MMRV), even if age eligible.”

This communication from the CDC gives health care providers recommendations on what to look out for to identify potential measles cases, as well as steps to take when dealing with suspected and confirmed cases.

Real-world analysis: COVID-19 vaccine is strongly effective for children and adolescents during delta and omicron

On January 9^th, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a large study involving 250,000 patients to evaluate the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine against COVID-19 during mid-2021 and 2022. In what is one of the “largest ‘real-world’ COVID-19 vaccine studies of children and adolescents in the United States,” the researchers found “children and adolescents who received one of the main COVID-19 vaccines were significantly protected from the illness and showed no increased signs of cardiac complications compared to young people who were not vaccinated.”