Vaccines for Children: List By Age, Benefits, Safety

Medical Minute: Survey Finds Less Than Half Of Americans Plan To Get COVID Or Flu Vaccines This Year

Less than half of Americans are planning to get their COVID or flu shots this season, according to a new survey from Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

Friday, September 13th 2024, 12:23 pm

By: CBS News

As flu season approaches and COVID-19 cases continue across parts of United States, health experts are worried that many Americans are hesitant to get vaccinated.

According to a new survey from Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, less than half of Americans are planning to get their COVID or flu shots this season.

Dr. Nora Colburn, an infectious disease doctor with Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told CBS News these findings are "very concerning."

"We really need a large majority of our population to get vaccinated, to protect our entire community," she said. 

The national poll of more than 1,000 people found more than a third — 37% — have gotten vaccines in the past but do not plan to this year.

Colburn says getting vaccines is critical in protecting yourself and others. Updated COVID-19 shots and this year's flu shots are currently being rolled out. 

"It also protects you from complications of both infections," she said. "We know that people who get influenza and COVID can have increased risk of bacterial infections, as well as cardiovascular events, like heart attacks and strokes."

The survey found adults 65 and older are the most likely to get the recommended vaccines.

"They're the most risk of getting severe disease. And we see that the vaccine really protects them from severe disease, hospitalization and even death," Colburn said.

Others at high risk during respiratory virus season include people with certain chronic medical conditions and pregnant women.

Risk Factors, Vaccines' Role And What Else To Know As A Whooping Cough Outbreak Grows In Anchorage

Kathy Bell, Anchorage School District director of health care services, holds a box of DTaP vaccines in her office on Tuesday. DTaP protects against pertussis. A number of pertussis cases have recently been confirmed or suspected in the district. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

In recent days, the Anchorage School District has confirmed cases of pertussis, a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable respiratory illness, in at least six schools.

Statewide, pertussis is leading to hospitalizations and even the death of an infant. Here's what medical experts Kathy Bell, a nurse and the head of the Anchorage School District's health services unit, and state epidemiologist Joseph McLaughlin say Alaskans should know about pertussis:

What's pertussis?

Pertussis is a contagious bacterial respiratory illness that leads to long, sustained bouts of coughing so severe that it can cause vomiting. A distinctive "whooping" sound that coughers make when struggling for breath is the reason for the illness's other name, whooping cough. Most children receive immunizations against pertussis as babies and children.

What's happening now?

Alaska is in the midst of a pertussis epidemic. So far, the state has recorded 234 cases this year, according to McLaughlin, an epidemiologist with the Alaska Division of Public Health. By comparison, the year with the most cases before that was 2016, when 149 cases were reported statewide.

The same is happening nationally, McLaughlin said — after several years of low rates during the coronavirus pandemic, the illness is resurgent and circulating. In August, four times as many cases were reported as the same time in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Part of the reason may be the suppression of pertussis during the COVID-19 pandemic due to mitigation measures such as masking and distancing, the CDC says.

"It's been a while since we've really had a sizable epidemic of pertussis, and I think that's contributing to the large case counts that we're seeing this year," McLaughlin said.

Still, the public doesn't need to brace for the types of mitigation measures seen in the COVID-19 pandemic, including school shutdowns, said Bell, the ASD health director. That's because pertussis is a known illness treatable with antibiotics and preventable with vaccination, she said.

Who is most at risk?

Infants, especially newborns, are at the most risk from pertussis because they can't clear secretions and develop trouble breathing, or organ problems, said Bell. In Alaska, one infant has died from pertussis this year, according to McLaughlin. There have been more than a dozen hospitalizations, mostly of children younger than 2 years old, McLaughlin said. Pertussis can cause violent coughing fits that continue for weeks and even months — in some parts of the world, it is known as the "100-day cough" because it can take so long to recover. Older or immunocompromised people can also be at risk for the most severe manifestations of the illness.

What about adults?

Adults can get a booster vaccine that includes protection from pertussis every 10 years. If you want to know whether you have a current pertussis vaccine and when you got it, Bell said you can download the Docket app, which provides access to personal and family immunization records. Immunity wanes over time, but confers "still pretty robust protection five years out," McLaughlin said.

What role do vaccines play?

Kathy Bell, Anchorage School District director of health care services, holds a dose of the DTaP vaccine in her office on Tuesday. DTaP protects against pertussis. A number of pertussis cases have recently been confirmed or suspected in the district. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

As of the end of July, most Alaskans had completed their pertussis vaccine series, though the margins were not large. The state Division of Public Health says:

• For children 19-35 months old, 65% have completed their pertussis vaccine series.

• For children ages 5-6 years, 62% are current with their pertussis vaccine.

• For adolescents ages 13-17 years, 69% received vaccine protecting against pertussis.

• For adults 18 years and older, 65% have at least one pertussis vaccine.

In Alaska, the law requires that families vaccinate their children — including the pertussis vaccine — or apply for a medical or religious exemption to enroll their children in school. Families must sign and notarize a form that says vaccination "conflicts with the tenets and practices of the church or religious denomination." The state says "personal or philosophical exemptions are not allowed per state law."

A substantial number of district families sought such exemptions this fall: A total of 1,204 children in the Anchorage School District were not vaccinated for pertussis as of September 2024, according to district data. Of those, 1,018 were religious exemptions, 140 were medical exemptions and 46 were military transfer or child-in-transition exemptions.

The total number of vaccine exemptions was up slightly from the previous school year, when there was a total of 1,182. Students in kindergarten, first or second grade accounted for 35% of the religious exemptions.

"It's an individual choice. We can't force people to get vaccines," said Bell. "But they were developed for a reason."

Can you get sick if you are vaccinated?

It's possible to get a breakthrough sickness even if you're vaccinated, but the symptoms should be less severe, experts say. About half of the kids who've tested positive for pertussis in ASD schools have been unvaccinated, Bell said. And more than half of the total number of pertussis cases recorded in the state have been among unvaccinated people, according to McLaughlin.

What should you do if you or a family member get sick?

If you or a family member are sick with symptoms of pertussis, go to the doctor and get tested, experts say — but be aware it can take up to a week to get test results. A doctor will likely start you on a course of antibiotics right away, and you might finish that course of antibiotics before you know whether you indeed tested positive for pertussis, said Bell. People can be contagious for weeks. It's most important, Bell said, to protect infants, especially those young enough not to have received their first dose of the vaccine.

Early symptoms of pertussis can mirror those of other illnesses going around, including RSV and COVID-19, McLaughlin said, so it's good to find out for sure.

"It's a bit challenging right now to be in the middle of a pertussis epidemic when you've got all these other viruses that cause very similar symptoms during the beginning of the illness," he said.

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One Dose Of Smallpox Vaccine Found To Be Moderately Effective In Preventing Mpox Infection

One dose of modified vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) smallpox vaccine is moderately effective in preventing mpox infection and should be made available to communities at risk, finds a study published by The BMJ .

With mpox infections rising again across the globe, the researchers say these findings "strengthen the evidence that MVA-BN is effective at preventing mpox infection and should be made available and accessible to communities at risk."

No randomized clinical trials of vaccination against mpox have been conducted. Estimates of the effectiveness of a single dose of vaccination from observational studies range from 36% to 86%, but observational data can be prone to bias, which can lead to inaccurate or misleading results.

To address this, researchers set out to estimate the real world effectiveness of one dose of MVA-BN against mpox infection using a technique called target trial emulation. This applies the design principles of randomized trials to observational data to estimate the causal effect of an intervention, while reducing the biases common to observational studies.

Their findings are based on men aged at least 18 years, with a history of being tested for syphilis and a laboratory confirmed bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the previous year, or who filled a prescription for preventative HIV treatment in the previous year.

A total of 3,204 men who received the vaccine were matched to 3,204 unvaccinated controls. Over the study period of 153 days, 71 mpox infections were diagnosed, 21 in the vaccinated group (a rate of 0.09 per 1,000 person days) and 50 in the unvaccinated group (a rate of 0.20 per 1000 person days).

The relative risk of infection in the vaccinated compared with the unvaccinated group was 0.42, thus the estimated vaccine effectiveness of one dose of MVA-BN against mpox infection was 58%.

The researchers acknowledge that rigorous matching led to a smaller sample size and they could not evaluate a two-dose regimen or duration of protection. Information on previous smallpox vaccination, sexual exposures, and individual level measures of social determinants of health were also lacking.

However, results are based on reliable data from a publicly funded health care system, and were similar after further analysis to account for other potentially influential factors, providing greater confidence in the conclusions.

The researchers therefore conclude that in the absence of randomized clinical trials, "our findings strengthen the evidence that MVA-BN is effective at preventing mpox infection and should be made available and accessible to communities at risk."

More information: Effectiveness of modified vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic vaccine against mpox infection: emulation of a target trial, The BMJ (2024). DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2023-078243

Citation: One dose of smallpox vaccine found to be moderately effective in preventing mpox infection (2024, September 11) retrieved 15 September 2024 from https://medicalxpress.Com/news/2024-09-dose-smallpox-vaccine-moderately-effective.Html

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