| Issue
Number 18, June 25, 2004 |
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| Contents of this Issue |
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ABBREVIATIONS: ACIP, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; CDC, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention; DVH, Division of Viral Hepatitis; HAV,
hepatitis A virus; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HCV, hepatitis C virus; IAC,
Immunization Action Coalition; IDU, injection drug user; MMWR, Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report; MSM, men who have sex with men; STD, sexually
transmitted disease; VIS, Vaccine Information Statement; WHO, World Health
Organization.
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June 25, 2004
CDC MADE GREAT STRIDES IN VIRAL HEPATITIS PREVENTION UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF DR.
HAROLD MARGOLIS
[The following is cross posted from the Immunization Action Coalition's "IAC
EXPRESS" electronic newsletter, 6/21/04.]
In April, CDC announced that Harold S. Margolis, MD, will be retiring on June 30
from his position as director, Division of Viral Hepatitis. Dr. Margolis will
become the director of the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative in Seoul, Korea.
Before moving to Seoul, he will work at the Emory Vaccine Center in Atlanta.
Dr. Margolis began his career with CDC in 1975 as an EIS (Epidemic Intelligence
Service) officer, Alaska Investigation Division, Anchorage. In 1981, he
transferred to the Division of Hepatitis and Viral Enteritis, Phoenix. In 1987,
he became the chief, Hepatitis Branch, Division of Viral and Rickettsial
Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases. Under his outstanding
leadership, and with his vision and tireless effort, the Division of Viral
Hepatitis was created in 2001, and he was appointed director. He is also the
director of WHO's Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Viral
Hepatitis.
In his 29-year career with CDC, Dr. Margolis has made significant contributions
to viral hepatitis prevention. Following is information provided by CDC:
**********************
The impact of Dr. Margolis's scientific achievements is especially evident in
the area of hepatitis B virus prevention. He was the architect of the national
Hepatitis B Elimination Strategy, and under his direction, both perinatal and
universal childhood immunization have been successfully implemented. These
activities have successfully reduced transmission among infants and young
children by 70%-80%. This elimination strategy is a model for vaccination
programs worldwide. In addition to supporting global hepatitis B immunization
activities, Dr. Margolis was instrumental in setting up the Safe Injection
Global Network at WHO in recognition of the need to direct efforts to prevent
health care related transmission of bloodborne pathogens through unsafe
injections. Dramatic achievements in the reduction of hepatitis A through
immunization also have been realized during Dr. Margolis's tenure, and he is
responsible for overseeing the National Hepatitis C Prevention Strategy, and for
bringing attention and resources to the prevention of an important chronic
disease of infectious etiology.
Dr. Margolis's scientific accomplishments and leadership skills have brought him
respect throughout the scientific community, both nationally and
internationally. He has been invited to testify before the U.S. Congress and
state legislatures; to serve as a consultant to the World Health Organization;
to sit on numerous review panels; to serve as an advisor to the National
Institutes of Health Committee on Digestive Diseases; and to chair workshops and
symposia at national and international programs. In 2000, he hosted the 10th
international Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease. During Dr.
Margolis's tenure at CDC he has served in a number of additional capacities
including senior advisor, Smallpox Preparedness and Response, Office of the
Director, CDC (2001-2002).
**********************
In commenting on Dr. Margolis's retirement, IAC executive director Dr. Deborah
Wexler reflected on him as a colleague and leader. "Hal is a dear friend," she
said. "He's engaging, stimulating, and challenging. He's also been a mentor:
With his encyclopedic knowledge of viral hepatitis, he's definitely THE source
to seek for information. Hal is also a visionary who has developed innovative
strategies about how public health agencies, such as hepatitis, STD, HIV, and
immunization, can work together to achieve viral hepatitis elimination.
Replacing him as director of the Division of Viral Hepatitis will be a daunting
task."
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June 25, 2004
AMA DEVELOPS GUIDE TO APPROPRIATE REIMBURSEMENT CODING FOR POPULATIONS AT RISK
OF VIRAL HEPATITIS
The American Medical Association (AMA) has joined with CDC to help protect MSM
and other at-risk individuals from HBV and HAV infection. On March 8, 2004, four
CDC divisions released a "Dear Colleague" letter urging health care
professionals to help prevent STDs among MSM. At the same time, CDC launched a
section of related online resources at
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/msm
In order to complement this program and assist physicians in implementing this
call to action, the AMA created a trifold pocket guide to appropriate
reimbursement coding for immunizing populations at risk against hepatitis B and
hepatitis A. You can download "Coding Guidelines for Vaccine-Preventable
Hepatitis (VPH)" at
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/36/ama_hep_coding_trifo.pdf
A hotline phone number is also available for answers about reimbursement on a
patient-by-patient basis: (888) 822-2749. GlaxoSmithKline underwrites this
service; information is given regardless of the vaccine used.
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June 25, 2004
CDC PUBLISHES STATE HEPATITIS C PREVENTION ACTIVITIES ON ITS WEBSITE
CDC's Division of Viral Hepatitis has published the strategic plans for
prevention and control of hepatitis C from 11 states on its website. These plans
provide a road map for prioritizing the development of prevention activities,
integrating hepatitis prevention activities into existing public health
programs, and obtaining resources to achieve implementation activities.
Others may find these plans to be useful when developing their own locale's
hepatitis C prevention strategy. To access the plans listed by state, go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/partners/state_plans.htm
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June 25, 2004
WEB-TEXT VERSIONS OF IAC'S STANDING ORDERS PROTOCOLS CAN BE MODIFIED TO MEET
YOUR PRACTICE OR CLINIC NEEDS
Intended to help increase adult immunization rates, standing orders protocols
are guidelines health professionals can use to allow appropriately licensed
individuals to administer vaccines without a physician's direct order.
In the past year, IAC has developed eight standing orders protocols for
administering vaccine to adults. Besides being available as ready-to-copy (PDF)
documents, these pieces are now available in web-text (HTML) format on IAC's
website. The advantage of providing these documents in HTML format is that it
allows providers to cut, paste, and modify these protocols to create ones that
meet the needs of their practice or clinic.
Only the links to standing orders protocols for hepatitis A and hepatitis B
administration are provided below. You can download standing orders protocols
for additional vaccines from IAC's online catalog at
http://www.immunize.org/free
To access the web-text (HTML) version of "Standing Orders for
Administering Hepatitis A Vaccine to Adults," go to:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p3077.htm
To access the web-text (HTML) version of "Standing Orders for
Administering Hepatitis B Vaccine to Adults," go to:
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p3076.htm
If you wish to use the PDF versions of these standing orders
(which are ready-to-copy from any browser, but not alterable),
go to:
"Standing Orders for Administering Hepatitis A Vaccine to
Adults"
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p3077.pdf
"Standing Orders for Administering Hepatitis B Vaccine to
Adults"
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p3076.pdf
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June 25, 2004
ERRORS DISCOVERED AND CORRECTED IN FOOTNOTES OF "RECOMMENDED
CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT IMMUNIZATION SCHEDULE—UNITED STATES,
JULY-DECEMBER 2004" ON THE NIP WEBSITE
The National Immunization Program (NIP) discovered several
errors in the footnotes of "Recommended Childhood and Adolescent
Immunization Schedule--United States, July-December 2004" as
originally published on the NIP website, primarily with the
influenza vaccine footnote.
If you downloaded the new schedule from the NIP website prior to
May 28, you should not reproduce or distribute this version of
the schedule. The incorrect files have been removed, and
corrected versions have been posted on the NIP website.
To access the corrected and reposted "Recommended Childhood and
Adolescent Immunization Schedule--United States, July-December
2004," from the NIP website, go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/recs/child-schedule.htm#Printable Scroll
down to the section titled "July-December 2004 New!" and select
the version you want.
The version of the schedule printed in the April 30 issue of
"MMWR Quick Guide," in "Pediatrics," and on IAC's website is
correct. To access the correct "Recommended Childhood and
Adolescent Immunization Schedule—United States, July-December
2004" from IAC's website, go to:
http://www.immunize.org/cdc/child-schedule.pdf
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June 25, 2004
CDC OFFERS WEB-BASED HEPATITIS B DISEASE BURDEN MODEL
CDC has developed a computer model to help assess the hepatitis
B disease burden in any country. Given just a few data points,
the model will calculate a country's current and future
hepatitis B disease burden. It will also project the reduction
in burden that could be realized with different hepatitis B
vaccination strategies.
The model is available on the Advanced Immunization Management
(AIM) website. To access this resource, go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/model.htm
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June 25, 2004
IAC PUBLISHES UPDATED EDUCATION PIECE ON UNUSUAL CASES OF HBV
TRANSMISSION
In June, IAC published an education piece titled "Unusual Cases
of Hepatitis B Virus Transmission." This piece replaces the 1994
article "No Risk?? No Way!!"
The updated document may be useful to both health professionals
and selected members of the public. It was developed to respond
to parents who question the necessity of vaccinating infants
against HBV because they believe that only sexually promiscuous
persons or drug users could ever become infected with the virus.
The piece presents 21 scenarios of HBV transmission via medical
procedures, team sports, day care, school, and more. All cases
were reported in peer-reviewed journals and citations are
provided.
"Unusual Cases of Hepatitis B Virus Transmission" is available
in ready-to-copy (PDF) format at
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p2100nrs.pdf
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June 25, 2004
CENTERFORCE TO HOST 5TH ANNUAL INSIDE/OUT SUMMIT IN
SAN FRANCISCO, SEPTEMBER 11-15
Centerforce is hosting its 5th Annual Inside/Out Summit,
"Models for Change—Delivering Services to Those Affected by
Incarceration" in San Francisco, CA, September 11-15, 2004.
Centerforce provides services for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and
family members of prisoners through direct services, an annual
conference, and through consultation and training for government
agencies, community-based organizations, and correctional
facilities across the country and internationally.
For more information about the Summit, visit Centerforce at
http://www.centerforce.org/summit or call Beth Houghton at
(415) 456-9980, extension 124.
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June 25, 2004
THERAPIES FOR VIRAL HEPATITIS WORKSHOP TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 2-3
IN BOSTON
The Therapies for Viral Hepatitis workshop will be held November
2-3, 2004, in Boston, MA. This international meeting provides an
opportunity to address the clinical development of treatment of
viral hepatitis. The meeting will be held immediately after the
American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD)
meeting.
The deadline for both abstract submission and early-bird
registration is August 20, 2004.
For information on the workshop agenda or registration, go to:
http://www.intmedpress.com/hepatitis
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June 25, 2004
COMING SOON! HFI'S NATIONAL VIRAL HEPATITIS SUMMIT SCHEDULED FOR
AUGUST 26-27 IN BALTIMORE, MD
The Third Annual National Viral Hepatitis Summit will be held
August 26-27, 2004, in Baltimore, MD. The conference is
sponsored by Hepatitis Foundation International (HFI) and is
intended for physicians, nurses, psychologists, counselors,
outreach workers, patient advocates, and others working with
people who are affected by or infected with viral hepatitis.
For information about the agenda and/or registration, go to
http://www.hepfi.org/pdfs/registrationsummit.pdf or call (800)
891-0707.
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June 25, 2004
CONTINUING EDUCATION: FOR A GLOBAL IMMUNIZATION PERSPECTIVE,
SUBSCRIBE TO THESE HIGH-QUALITY INTERNATIONAL LISTSERVS
[The following is cross posted from the Immunization Action
Coalition's "IAC EXPRESS" electronic newsletter, 6/21/04.]
For an understanding of global public health issues, including
immunization and viral hepatitis, you might want to subscribe to
one or more international listservs. IAC regards the ones below
as among the best.
SIGNpost (a publication of the Safe Injection Global Network
[SIGN]). Created by WHO, SIGN is a comprehensive resource on
international injection safety issues. To subscribe to SIGNpost,
a weekly moderated email forum, go to:
http://www.who.int/injection_safety/newsletter/SIGNPost Fill in
the subscription information requested at the bottom of the
screen. You can visit SIGN's home page at
http://www.who.int/injection_safety
Weekly Epidemiological Record (a WHO publication). Communicates
epidemiological information on cases and outbreaks of diseases
under the International Health Regulations and on other
communicable diseases of public health importance. To subscribe,
send a message to majordomo@who.ch Leave the subject line
blank, and type "subscribe wer-reh" in the body of the message.
VHPB email service (a publication of the Viral Hepatitis
Prevention Board [VHPB]). The objective of VHPB is to contribute
to the control and prevention of viral hepatitis by drawing
attention to viral hepatitis, issuing prevention guidelines, and
encouraging actions to improve control and prevention. The email
service contains current information from the VHPB website and
the organization's newsletter, "Viral Hepatitis." To subscribe,
go to: http://www.vhpb.org Click on "VHPB e-mail service" in
the left column.
ProMED-digest (a publication of the International Society of
Infectious Diseases). Publishes updates on disease outbreaks
around the world several times a week. To subscribe, go to:
http://www.isid.org/promedmail/subscribe.lasso
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