Primary Navigation for the CDC Website
CDC en Español

 

COCA Conference Call Summaries and Slides:
Antimicrobial Resistance; Influenza (December 17, 2003)

NOTE: This document is provided for historical purposes only and may not provide our most accurate and up-to-date information. The most current Clinician's information can be found on the Clinician Home Page.

Dr. Cynthia Whitney
Epidemiology Group Chief
Bacterial and Respiratory Diseases Branch
Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases
NationalCenter for Infectious Diseases

Please note: Data and analysis discussed in these presentations were current when presented. Data collection and analysis are ongoing in many cases, therefore updates may be forthcoming elsewhere on this website, through publications such as CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report or other venues. Presentations themselves will not be updated. Please bear this in mind when citing data from these presentations.

Trends in Resistance in Invasive Pneumococcal Disease: Disease Burden and Effect of Antibiotic Resistance on Clinical Outcome

Patricia Cook
Program Director - Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work
Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases
NationalCenter for Infectious Diseases

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Dr. Marquerite Neal-Infectious Diseases Society of America

I’m wondering, if in the campaign you’re going to use professional societies as a pipeline for the communication network?

Patricia Cook

Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Neal

Because I didn’t hear that in the list.

Ms. Cook

Yes, professional organizations we definitely want. In fact, that’s one of the things we’re trying to get right now. We have AAP; we have nurses’ associations. In fact, I was looking at the list of the people that we have. We already have the American Academy of Family Physicians, nurse practitioners. So we have several of your organizations already involved, but we can use every one of you there in our campaign. And if you’re interested in partnering with us, my e-mail is pcook@cdc.gov and I can get you all the information to partner with us.

Dr. Neal

Might I suggest a couple of other organizations?

Ms. Cook

Yes, please.

Dr. Neal

I would be thinking, in terms of… there are a number of surgical subspecialties. For example, the ENT group is one, and then the Infectious Disease Society of America, obviously, has felt like they sing to the church choir, but we’d certainly be happy to keep showcasing this.

Ms. Cook

IDSA is a partner with us already, but we haven’t thought about the emergency medical technicians, and thank you for that.

INFLUENZA

Dr. Scott Harper
Medical Officer
Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases
NationalCenter for Infectious Diseases

Current Status of Influenza Outbreak and CDC Recommendations

Raymond A. Strikas, M.D.
Director
Smallpox Preparedness and Response Activity
National Immunization Program

Influenza and Influenza Vaccine

Overall Key Messages

Projections/Predictions Regarding the Influenza Season

Influenza Vaccine Manufacturing and Supplies

Influenza Vaccine Production

Guidance on Use of Available (Injectable) Vaccine

Vaccination

Hygiene

Medication

Other Protective Actions that Can Be Taken

Aside from getting vaccinated, people can take several, simple steps to protect themselves and their loved ones from influenza:

Those who have already received the flu should remember the following:

If you develop the flu, it is advisable to get plenty of rest , drink a lot of liquids , and avoid using alcohol and tobacco . Also, you can take medications to relieve the symptoms of flu (but never give aspirin to children or teenagers who have flu-like symptoms – and particularly fever – without first speaking to your doctor.)

The most common symptoms of the flu include:

Influenza, also known as the flu, is a contagious disease that is caused by the influenza virus. It attacks the respiratory tract in humans (nose, throat, and lungs). The flu is different from a cold. Influenza usually comes on suddenly and may include these symptoms:

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Dr. Marguerite Neal

Hello, Ray. Great job to everyone. I’ll just jump in with both feet. Can you give us perspective and commentary on discussions related to more actively promulgating widespread use of the live-attenuated in the settings in which many of us have absolutely no vaccine available?

Dr. Strikas

Yes. You remind me of something I omitted to say, and then I’ll ask Dr. Harper to comment as well. I didn’t say what’s being done in terms of addressing the issue with vaccine supply, and that’s very important. CDC has been able to identify some sources of inactivated vaccine and 250,000 doses, in allotments of 100,000 and 150,000, are being shipped to state health departments, either now or in the next few weeks.

An additional 375,000 doses inactivated vaccine will get to the state health departments in mid-January, and CDC has a contract with WYETH Medimmune for the FluMist live-attenuated vaccine, of which we are told there are over three million doses still available, to allow state and local health departments to purchase that product, if they so desire, at a cost of $20.00 a dose.

I do think that product, although it has a limited licensure for persons between 5 and 49 years of age, offers an alternative that we recommend - I think Scott said this - people seek, if they are in that age group and don’t have high-risk medical conditions and wish to be vaccinated. Because, as far as anyone knows, it’s an excellent vaccine, which is why it’s licensed and they should take advantage of it.

The limitation - and I don’t know if you were referring to this - that some are concerned about, is that it’s not the preferred vaccine for people in close contact with persons with immuno-comprising conditions, because of the concern about shedding of the attenuated virus that could conceivably cause, although it’s never even documented to cause, significant illness in such people.

I don’t know that we have a clear answer, except to get more data, about the duration of time in which this vaccine virus is shed from vaccinated persons and see if it could be transmitted to susceptible other people. Scott, did you want to add to that?

Dr. Harper

Yes. I guess another issue with the live-attenuated virus is, as you mentioned, it’s labeled for persons 5 to 49 who are healthy, and the reason that it’s not less than five is because there were some potential safety considerations, and it’s not licensed above the age of 50, because of some efficacy effectiveness issues, just needing more data.

So that’s all to say that above and beyond the use in potential contacts of immuno-suppressed persons, the issue of using that vaccine off label in these persons who either have high-risk health conditions or are outside of that age range would require significant intervention, certainly within and outside of CDC, because of the current restrictions on use and the current labeling.

So I can say that there have been preliminary discussions; just this topic has come up, and we have been talking about it here in meetings, but that’s about all. That’s as far as it’s gone. There are no specifics that I can really relay right now, mainly because of my own personal ignorance on it. But I can tell you that that is a topic, which has been actively discussed over the last couple of days.

Dr. Strikas

Have we addressed your questions?

Dr. Neal

Yes, and I would just reiterate it is a hot topic of discussion on the ground, in the trenches. There are possible populations that are a fit. Schoolteachers kind of come to mind, in terms of potentially skirting some of the concerns for healthcare workers. I don’t want to bog down the line. I have a second question, but I’ll get back in line.

Dr. Neal

Another question that I have relates to whether we have any data on using a neurometadase inhibitor, concurrently with a person who is vaccinated with the live-attenuated vaccine?

The question that I have relates to whether we have any data on using a neuraminidase inhibitor, concurrently with a person who is vaccinated with the live-attenuated vaccine?

Dr. Harper

This is Scott Harper. So there are recommendations about that, limited data. The implication for this is that if you have, for instance, a healthcare worker, who is in an institutional setting where there’s an outbreak, and they have not been previously vaccinated, the healthcare worker, typically with an inactivated vaccine, you would vaccinate them and then you would give them chemoprophylaxis for two weeks, until they had enough time to build an antibody response from the vaccine.

That cannot be accomplished with the live-attenuated influenza vaccine, because of issues with, mainly, in vitro data of inhibiting the virus’ ability to replicate and then cause an antibody response if you do administer antivirals. So the current recommendations state that if somebody gets a live-attenuated influenza vaccine, they cannot get chemoprophylaxis for two weeks afterwards.

Page last modified July 20, 2004

Content Source:


Navigation for the CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response Website

• Home


Additional Navigation for the EPR Website


Additional Navigation for the CDC Website

“Safer Healthier People”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
CDC Contact Center: 800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636) • 888-232-6348 (TTY) • cdcinfo@cdc.gov
Director's Emergency Operations Center (DEOC): 770-488-7100