The AP (6/25, Stobbe) reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) “gave a weak endorsement Wednesday to two expensive meningitis [B] shots, declining to recommend that all teens get the vaccine,” instead leaving the decision to receive the vaccine to parents and physicians. The AP adds that “several members cited uncertainties about” the effectiveness of the vaccine and whether it required a booster shot. Meanwhile, others wanted more information on the side effects of the vaccine. The recommendation cites ages 16 to 18 as the best time to receive the vaccine.
The New York Times (6/25, A13, Tavernise, Subscription Publication) reports that the committee voted 14 to 1 “to recommend the more limited use of the vaccine in people ages 16 to 23.” The Times adds that the vaccine “is new and relatively costly and the illness is rare,” leading the committee to its cautious approach. Still, “patient groups and the companies that make the vaccine said the decision was an improvement over current policy,” which had recommended the vaccine only for those at high risk. Director of the HHS National Vaccine Program Office Dr. Bruce Gellin said, “These recommendations are now what guides clinical practices.”
Reuters (6/24) reports that the decision may create an avenue for broader access to the drugs, even though the CDC’s category B recommendation for the vaccine is not the agency’s most wide-ranging guidance.
CNN (6/25, Lamotte) reports that “parents who lost their children to meningococcal disease lined up for more than an hour” to advocate for “the strongest action possible.” The “lively” discussion yesterday focused “on the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, questions about the duration of the immunity and the cost of the vaccines, which averages $400 for the two-to-three-dose series.”
The Seattle Times (6/25) and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (6/25) also report the story.
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