| Technically Speaking |
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| Monthly Column by Deborah Wexler, MD |
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| Technically Speaking is a monthly column written by IAC’s Executive Director Deborah Wexler, MD. The column is featured in The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center’s (VEC's) monthly e-newsletter for healthcare professionals. Technically Speaking columns cover practical topics in immunization delivery such as needle length, vaccine administration, cold chain, and immunization schedules. |
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| Check out a recent issue of Vaccine Update for Healthcare Providers. The VEC e-newsletter keeps providers up to date on vaccine-related issues and includes reviews of recently published journal articles, media recaps, announcements about new resources, and a regularly updated calendar of events. |
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| TECHNICALLY SPEAKING |
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| Immunization Action Coalition Launches "Question of the Week" in its Free Weekly Newsletter |
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| Published June 2014 |
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| Information presented in this article may have changed since the original publication date. For the most current immunization recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, visit
www.immunize.org/acip/acip_vax.asp. |
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| Question of the Week: For the purpose of vaccine spacing, what constitutes a month: 28 days (4 weeks), 30 days, or 31 days? (Find the answer at end of this article.*) |
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| Looking for answers to difficult, real-life immunization questions like the one above? The Immunization Action Coalition's (IAC's) free weekly electronic immunization newsletter, IAC Express, recently launched “Question of the Week,” a new feature that highlights a topical or important-to-reiterate question that is answered by experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). |
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| This new feature is a cooperative venture between IAC and CDC. IAC's associate director for immunization education, William L. Atkinson, MD, MPH, selects a new Q&A every week based on common or especially intriguing questions forwarded to IAC by CDC experts. |
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| In addition to being featured in IAC Express, the “Question of the Week” is posted online in the following places: |
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| We hope you enjoy this new feature in IAC Express and find it helpful when dealing with real-life scenarios that arise in your vaccination practice. To receive these weekly questions, be sure to subscribe to IAC Express and please encourage your healthcare professional colleagues to sign up as well, so they too will benefit from this practical and invaluable resource. |
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| And if you have a question for CDC’s immunization experts, you may email them directly at nipinfo@cdc.gov. There is no charge for this service. |
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| *Answer to Question of the Week: For intervals of three months or less, you should use 28 days (4 weeks) as a "month." For intervals of four months or longer, you should consider a month to be a "calendar month": the interval from one calendar date to the next a month later. This is a convention that was introduced on the childhood schedule in 2002 and discussed in the paper "Evaluation of Invalid Vaccine Doses" (Stokely S, Maurice E, Smith PJ, et al. Am J. Prev Med. 2004 Jan; 26(1):34–40). |
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ACIP Recommendations
Vaccine Information Statements 
