Author: Viviana Sanchez-Gomez

PhilaVax Closed to VFC Orders from 3/26 through 4/1

PhilaVax will be temporarily closed to new VFC orders from 12 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, until 12 p.m. on Monday, April 1, while the vaccine prices are updated for 2024.

Any orders entered into PhilaVax IIS during this time will be deleted from the system and not processed.

If you need to place an order, submit it before 12 p.m. onTuesday, March 26.

Normal order processing and shipping will resume at 12 p.m. on Monday, April 1.

Recommend HPV Vaccine at Every Visit!

The HPV vaccine is approved for ages 9 years through 45 years for all genders. The American Cancer Society and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend vaccination at age 9 .

Early vaccination at age 9-10 years has several benefits, including more robust immune response and increased likelihood of completing the series.

March 4 is International HPV Awareness Day!

To help increase HPV vaccination rates back to pre-pandemic levels:

Recommend HPV vaccine at every visit for 9-26-year-olds who have not begun or completed their series. Data shows that your recommendation may improve vaccination rates by 5 times.
For adults aged 26 years through 45 years, engage in shared decision making to help determine the benefits of vaccination.
Vaccination recommendations should be made in all healthcare settings, including acute, non-acute, GYN, dental, and pharmacy locations.

Steps to Recommend HPV Vaccine to Hesitant Parents

Use a Presumptive Announcement Approach:

Your child is __ years old.
Today, they are eligible to receive Tdap, HPV, and MCV vaccine.
We will make sure they get all these shots to keep them safe and healthy.

If parent hesitates:

Connect and Counsel:

What’s your main concern?
Counsel using a research-tested method (ex.”Over 30,000 Americans get cancer from HPV every year. Most could be prevented with the HPV vaccine.”)

If parent declines:

Try Again:

Almost 70% of parents who initially declined later agree to HPV vaccine or plan to vaccinate soon.

Clinical Guides

Physician assistants & nurse practitioners: Action Guide

Nurses & medical assistants: Action Guide

Print Resources

PDPH postcards and posters promoting pediatric and HPV vaccine.

Online Resources

New research reinforcing starting HPV vaccination at age 9.

If you have any questions, reach out to our team at vaccines@phila.gov.

Protect Your Patients from Flu, COVID-19, and RSV

There are currently high rates of respiratory illness nationwide, including flu, COVID-19, and RSV. Continue to recommend immunization to prevent severe illness and hospitalization. Below, review eligibility recommendations from the CDC and stay updated on flu products available to order through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program.

Recommendations for Flu Immunization and Co-Administration

CDC recommends:

Everyone aged six months and older should get an annual influenza vaccination.
If needed, influenza and other vaccines (e.g., COVID-19, RSV) may be given at the same visit.
Infants six months and older may receive influenza and COVID-19 vaccines at the same visit when they receive the RSV preventive antibody, nirsevimab.

Please ensure that children under nine years of age who have received only one dose of influenza vaccine across all previous seasons return for their second dose four weeks later (refer to figure).

No longer available for ordering:

FluMist (AstraZeneca / 66019-0310-10)

Available to order for VFC-eligible patients

Fluzone (Sanofi / 49281-0639-15)
Flucelvax (Sequirus / 70461-0323-03)
FluLaval (GSK / 19515-0814-52)

VFC Products Available for the 2023-2024 Flu Season

You can order flu vaccine anytime—no need to wait between orders or complete a reconciliation.

As a reminder, educational and promotional print materials related to flu and COVID-19 immunization are available to order on our website.

Additional Resources

Mpox Vaccine: Presidents’ Day Reminder

The City of Philadelphia is closed on Monday, February 19, 2024, in observance of Presidents’ Day. Be sure to submit your Mpox vaccine requests by Tuesday, February 20, at 5 p.m. to account for the holiday. Regular deliveries resume on Wednesday and Thursday of that week (week of February 19).

Remember to submit your temperatures to tempcheck@phila.gov and complete a reconciliation of the vaccine on hand for your order to be approved.

If you have any questions, contact Marguerite Horton at marguerite.horton@phila.gov.

Click the button below to submit your order for the mpox vaccine.

Order Mpox Vaccine

Beyfortus (Nirsevimab) Supply and Borrowing Update

The supply of nirsevimab allocated to the Vaccines For Children (VFC) program has been depleted. Therefore, no doses are available to order for the remainder of the 2023-2024 respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season.

As we approach the end of the RSV season on March 31st, we urge all VFC sites to utilize any remaining doses of nirsevimab in stock. For those with nirsevimab doses on hand, we strongly recommend immunizing all eligible infants against RSV. Previous guidance to offer nirsevimab to all infants less than eight months of age and to high-risk infants 8-19 months of age should be followed. It is no longer necessary to prioritize or reserve doses.

To ensure that as many eligible infants as possible are immunized:

Bidirectional borrowing of Beyfortus is permitted between now and March 31, 2024.
VFC-provided doses can be administered to private and CHIP-insured patients.
Private doses administered to VFC-eligible patients will be replaced.
Doses borrowed during this time will be tracked for replacement in the fall.
To borrow doses, reach out to Victor Obeck at victor.obeck@phila.gov .
This supersedes previous messaging on borrowing.

Thank you for your continued efforts to ensure the timely and effective administration of vaccines.

For further information or questions, reach out to Victor Obeck at victor.obeck@phila.gov.

Reminder for Bridge Access Providers

Only adults 18 and over who are uninsured or underinsured are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine under the Bridge Access Program (BAP).

Screening an individual for eligibility before giving a BAP COVID-19 dose is a requirement outlined in the provider agreement.

Uninsured: an individual who does not have health insurance.
Underinsured: an individual with health insurance, but the insurance does not cover the total cost of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Any individual with health insurance that covers the total cost of a COVID-19 vaccine would be ineligible for a BAP dose. Many insurance plans will cover the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine, including Medicaid, Medicare, and some private health insurance plans.

Notes:

Redistribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is not permitted under the BAP. Unauthorized redistribution of Bridge doses may result in a suspension or termination from the program.
If your practice has multiple locations, you will not be able to redistribute doses between the locations.

Every site interested in being enrolled in the BAP must complete enrollment individually. Complete the Bridge Program Interest Form to begin the enrollment process.

Find the form using the button below:

Bridge Program Interest Form

Join Us for a PCP Measles Update

Join Division of Disease Control (DDC) infectious disease experts Dr. Shara Epstein and Dr. Mayssa Abuali for a virtual measles update for primary care providers (PCPs). In a recent advisory, we encouraged pediatric providers to catch up patients on their MMR vaccination.

This informative session is for PCPs who would like to learn more about recent measles cases from physicians working in outbreak response with the Department of Public Health.

Meeting details:

Date: Friday, January 12, 2024

Time: 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

RSVP for the meeting

Action Required: PhilaVax User Account Renewal

Dear PhilaVax Users,

PDPH’s Immunization Program is currently undergoing our annual PhilaVax user account renewal.

All users must complete the user agreement for the 2024 calendar year for continued access to PhilaVax.

All agreements must be completed by February 7th, 2024. Users without an updated agreement by this date will be unable to log into PhilaVax, and their accounts will be rendered inactive until the agreement is completed.

Find the form using the button below:

PhilaVax User Agreement Form

New Immigrant and Refugee Pediatric Vaccination

This blog post was written alongside Dr. Mayssa Abuali, who has served the Philadelphia pediatric community for the past 10 years.

At the first domestic health visit with new immigrant or refugee pediatric patients, clinicians should review all available vaccine records, perform any testing, and update or revaccinate, as appropriate. Vaccine doses administered outside the United States should be accepted as valid, if schedules and doses are compatible with the Advisory Committee in Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations. If there’s no proof of receiving the required vaccines, it must be given during the medical exam.

Catch-up vaccines:

Work closely with Philadelphia School District nurses to catch up a student’s vaccines. This ensures timely school enrollment and protection of other students from vaccine preventable diseases.
Pay careful attention to intervals between vaccines as well as minimum required ages, and not only the number of doses previously received.
Attach any relevant serology to the child’s health assessment form or vaccine records. For example, include varicella and hepatitis A IgG titers and indicate if the child is immune by serology or natural disease.

Polio vaccination: In April 2016, the oral polio vaccine (OPV) was changed from a trivalent to a bivalent formulation to decrease the risk of vaccine-associated paralytic disease. Any oral polio vaccine given after April 2016 is invalid in the United States and will not count towards the child’s required polio series. Inactivated polio injectable vaccine (IPV) doses are needed to replace invalid OPV doses.

Transcribing vaccines: Many countries place the day before the month (i.e. day/month/year). Train your team to remember such date formats when transcribing international vaccine records into EMR.

Schedule follow-ups: Provide a scheduled follow-up visit for the vaccine before the patient leaves the clinic and indicate “catch-up vaccination initiated; follow-up scheduled on _” on the child health assessment form.

New Refrigerated Pfizer 12+ COVID-19 Vaccine

A new presentation of Comirnity (Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12+ year olds) (NDC 00069-2377-10) is now available to order.

The new presentation:

is a carton of 10 prefilled syringes.
is a refrigerated formulation that must be stored between 2°C and 8°C (36°F and 46°F). Do not store at ultra-cold or standard freezer temperatures.
can be used through the expiration date printed on the carton and syringe labels.

The old presentation of Comirnity (Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12+ year olds) (NDC 00069-2362-10) is no longer available to order through the VFC and Bridge programs.

Before ordering or administering the new product, ensure that Comirnity (Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12+ year olds) (NDC 00069-2377-10) has been added to your electronic medical record (EMR) so that administered doses are reported to the PhilaVax IIS.

See below for a picture of the new vaccine presentation. The carton includes a bright pink stripe with the words “DO NOT FREEZE.”

Continue to use any doses of the old Pfizer 12+ vaccine (NDC 00069-2362-10) on hand until it is consumed, expired, or has been stored at 2°C to 8°C for longer than the allowable 10 weeks.

Your site may have both presentations on hand for a period of time. If this occurs, please ensure that doses are clearly labeled and stored appropriately to prevent potential errors.