- Janice Hopkins Tanne
- New York
Children aged under 4 in the United States should receive two separate shots, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s vaccine advisory committee has recommended: one against varicella and one combined vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) also delayed a decision on whether to continue hepatitis vaccination within 24 hours of birth or to give the hepatitis shot at 1 month of age.
At its September meeting the committee said that it was recommending this change to the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccination schedule owing to a higher, although still low, risk of febrile seizures with MMRV in toddlers.
For hepatitis, the ACIP recommended screening all pregnant women for hepatitis B and tabled a proposal, not yet voted on, to delay the newborn birth dose vaccine to the age of 1 month. Previously the ACIP had recommended that all newborns be immunised against hepatitis B, greatly reducing …
