This year the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated recommendations for use of influenza vaccine. Previously, use of influenza vaccine focused primarily on the elderly as well as younger persons with underlying conditions that place them at high risk for severe disease and complications from influenza infection. The new recommendations also emphasize the benefits of influenza vaccination for young, healthy children who are at high risk for hospitalization with influenza infection. These changes are the result of recent reports demonstrating that otherwise healthy young children aged 6 to 24 months are hospitalized for influenza and its complications at rates comparable to those for whom influenza vaccination is already recommended, including the elderly.
Abbreviations
ACIP Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
*Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and †Department of Pediatrics, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
Correspondence to Robert S. Baltimore, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, Box 208064, New Haven, CT 06520-8064, USA; e-mail: robert.baltimore@yale.edu
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