TUESDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- The recommended immunization schedule for adults has been changed for this year to reflect the latest scientific evidence, according to an article in the Jan. 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has added a recommendation for women to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus with either the quadrivalent or bivalent vaccine, and has added a permissive recommendation for the HPV4 vaccine to be used in men.
Other changes include clarification over seasonal influenza vaccines, to distinguish them from pandemic flu strain vaccines; clarifications regarding the frequency and vaccination age for measles, mumps and rubella, and meningococcal vaccinations; and the recommendation for hepatitis A vaccination among people providing care for international adoptees.
"Unfortunately, deaths from vaccine-preventable illnesses still occur in the United States. For too many years, vaccines have been viewed as routine only for children and travelers," write Robert H. Hopkins Jr., M.D., and Keyur S. Vyas, M.D., of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, in an accompanying editorial. "Our challenge is to change this perception and to make immunizations integral to each encounter for physicians that care for adults in primary and specialty care settings."
