By Sarah Green
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Aug. 14
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started a
campaign
to improve awareness about new vaccines available for pre-teens.
The federal agency recommends that children ages 11 and 12 receive the Tdap vaccine, a booster that protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis or “whooping cough,” and MCV4, a meningitis vaccine. Girls of the same age are also now encouraged to receive a vaccine to protect against the human papilloma virus, or HPV.
The HPV vaccination recommendation is new, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the CDC. The tetanus booster replaces an older version of the shot; the new version should last longer and better protect against pertussis, which has re-emerged across the country in adolescents. And although young adults
typically 18 year olds who live in college dormitories
are most at risk for meningitis, the CDC has revised its recommendation to include children as early as age 11.
“It”s a relatively rare disease, but it”s certainly a scary disease,” Allen said. “The outcome is not good. It can lead to permanent disability or death. It”s important to receive the vaccine and protect against the disease.”
In addition to vaccinating the children, the CDC hopes that parents will be more likely to take their children for a “well-child” checkup at an age considered critical in the child”s development.
“When adolescents go in to see their doctor, they usually go in when they”re sick,” Allen said. “Parents are used to taking their younger children to the doctor for vaccinations and well-child visits. It”s not the same for adolescents. By vaccinating 11 and 12 year olds, it”s an opportunity for physicians to see them at an important time in their lives when they have a lot of changes going on.”
Public service announcements and a variety of documents will be used in the campaign, targeted primarily at mothers and fathers, the CDC said.
And the agency hopes the campaign will remind physicians to use any office visit to talk to parents about vaccinating their children, even if the 11 and 12 year olds are coming in because they are ill, Allen said.
“Vaccination usually isn”t high on the mind of the pediatrician or family physician,” he said. “It can be a missed opportunity to vaccinate.”
Unless 11 and 12 year olds are involved in sports, their parents rarely bring them in for routine physicals, said Alice Brown, nursing supervisor for the Salina Family Health Care Clinic in Salina.
Most meningitis vaccinations administered at the clinic are given to recently-graduated high school students. But more parents with junior-high aged children have been asking about vaccinations for the disease, Brown said.
“More and more parents are educated about it, and they”re asking more questions about it
they want to know the pros and cons about the vaccine,” she said.
The clinic has administered the new tetanus vaccine regularly for the past several years, Brown said. They give the HPV vaccine to those who request it, including all girls who report that they are sexually active. They”ve given the vaccine to girls as young as age 12, she said.
House Bill 2227
, which would have required girls entering the sixth grade to obtain the HPV vaccine, did not advance beyond the Kansas House Health and Human Services Committee earlier this year. But such laws have been enacted in 17 states, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures
.
Proponents of the bill said it would provide greater access to the vaccine, which is designed to protect against four strains of the virus. Those four strains are thought to cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts cases. But opponents said it could provide a false sense of security and lead more young people to have sex because they think they”re protected.
The laws that have been enacted elsewhere followed a June 2006 recommendation by the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that the vaccine be routinely administered for girls between ages 11 and 12, before they become sexually active.
-Sarah Green is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. She can be reached at
sgreen@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 118.