CDC Immunization Schedule Site

CDC Issues 2008 Childhood Vaccination Schedules

Vaccine Schedules CDC site

The 2008 recommended immunization schedules for children 18 years and younger have been published in MMWR.

Among the changes from 2007:

The live attenuated influenza vaccine (FluMist) is now recommended for children as young as age 2.
The meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4) is recommended for high-risk children aged 2 to 10 years and all children 13 to 18 who haven't been previously immunized. (Routine MCV4 vaccination continues to be recommended for normal-risk children aged 11 to 12, as well as children through age 18 at increased risk for meningococcal disease.)
A new catch-up schedule advises that children aged 7 to 18 who received their first dose of the tetanus and diphtheria toxoids/tetanus and diphtheria toxoids and acelluar pertussis vaccine (Td/Tdap) before age 1 should be given four doses, with 4 or more weeks between the second and third doses.

VA Hospital Dramatically Lowers Its MRSA Rate

A Veterans Affairs hospital that screens all new patients for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) cut infections to 17 cases from an average of 60 in previous years, according to the New York Times.

The paper quotes the hospital's chief of staff as saying that the entire program — added personnel, screening, using disposable blood pressure cuffs, isolating MRSA carriers, leaving a stethoscope in each room — costs about $500,000 while saving some $900,000 annually in treatment costs. Estimated U.S. costs for treating these infections run up to $30 billion annually.

The article quotes an infection-control advocate who criticizes the CDC's 2006 guidelines for infection control as "lax" and giving hospitals "an excuse to do too little."

CDC's 2006 guidelines on multidrug-resistant organisms (Free PDF)

Concussion recommendations -- CDC June 2007

free tool kit including patient handout and field triage guide.

www.cdc.gov/ncipc/tbi/physicians_tool_kit.htm

Physician's First Watch for June 8, 2007