National Immunization Awareness Month is here; upcoming week will focus on protecting babies and young children.

Every year in August, National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of immunization and the need for improving national vaccination coverage levels.

NIAM is co-sponsored by the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) and CDC. This week, August 12–18, focuses on vaccinations for babies and young children. The theme for the week is "A healthy start begins with on-time vaccinations."

The 2018 edition of the communications toolkit, put out by NPHIC in collaboration with CDC, contains key messages, vaccine information, sample news releases and articles, sample social media messages, links to web resources from CDC and other organizations, and logos, web banners, posters, and graphics to use with social media.

https://www.nphic.org/niam

The website also includes a place for you to share your NIAM activities and view what others are doing for NIAM, using the hashtag #NIAM18.

The first week of NIAM focused on vaccinations for pregnant women. The remaining weeks will focus on the following:

August 19–25—Preteens & teens: Ensure a healthy future with vaccines
August 26–31—Adults: Vaccines are not just for kids

TRAINING: Strategies for Recommending Human Papillomavirus Vaccine for Pre-teens

The Florida Department of Health Immunization Section would like to share with its partners and colleagues information about an upcoming webinar, Strategies for Recommending human papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination for Pre-teen Youth. 

The webinar will be hosted by School of Public Health, University of Albany, State University of New York, and is scheduled for Thursday, June 21, 2018, 9:00–10:00 a.m. EST.

Target audience for this learning opportunity is physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and other medical providers who counsel adolescents/pre-adolescents and their parents about vaccinations.

Speaker will be Kristin Oliver, MD, MHS, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine & Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai.

Objectives are as follows:

• Describe at least two reasons why HPV vaccination rates are sub-optimal
• Identify communication approaches that elicit and address concerns about the HPV vaccine
• Name at least two strategies to increase HPV vaccine uptake among hesitant youth and parents

For additional information please call 518-402-0330 or email coned@albany.edu.

Join Us—Register Now! If the link doesn't work, paste the following into your browser: 

http://ualbany-sph.informz.net/ualbany-sph/event.asp?eid=BEC629E6-B753-4509-BFEC-4EA45AE64926&uid=309148631&minst=2362313

FREE Immunization Training for medical professionals

The Immunization Action Coalition of Broward is once again offering a FREE immunization training session for medical office professional staff. 

The session will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at the FL Department of Health in Broward, 780 SW 24 St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315.

For more information, contact robert.lamendola@flhealth.gov or 954-213-0607. You can sign up by emailing us the name, phone number and email address of those who will attend.

Topics in this session: Adolescent Vaccines, Using Florida SHOTS, Administering Vaccine, Storage and Handling of Vaccine, and a fun game of Vaccine Jeopardy with prizes.

We have room for about 30 people so don't delay. Thanks and we hope to see you there.

PreTeen Vax news: New HPV resources now available

The FL Dept of Health Immunization Section would like to share with its partners and colleagues information about new Human papillomavirus (HPV) materials, partner resources, and publications now available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Every health care professional plays an important role in educating the public about HPV and increasing HPV vaccination rates. HPV vaccination is cancer prevention!

Check out the new materials and resources below:

• #PreteenVaxScene Webinar Recording: An Interprofessional Approach to HPV and Oropharyngeal Cancer Prevention Education
• HPV Fact Sheets and Guide to Adolescent Immunizations Flip Chart
• National HPV Vaccination Roundtable: Clinical and System Action Guides
• Academic Pediatric Supplement: Raising Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Rates

For additional information and HPV resources, please visit: www.cdc.gov/hpv/index.html.

If you have any questions or need any additional information regarding vaccine recommendations, please contact the Immunization Section at 850-245-4342.

Training opportunity: Pink Book Webinar Series

The Florida Department of Health Immunization Section would like to share with its partners and colleagues information about an upcoming webinar series, Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases—The Pink Book Webinar Series. This learning opportunity will be held on Wednesdays at noon EST beginning June 6, 2018.

Each session will explore a chapter from the 13th edition of Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases—The Pink Book and will include a LIVE Q&A session.

Webinars will also include updates from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Free continuing education available!

To view The Pink Book online, please visit: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/index.html.

Advanced registration is required to participate.

For additional webinar information and registration, please visit: www2.cdc.gov/vaccines/ed/pinkbook/.

If you have any questions or need any additional information regarding vaccine recommendations, please contact the Immunization Section at 850-245-4342.

Robert M. Griffin, Administrator

Immunization Section

Bureau of Epidemiology

Division of Disease Control and Health Protection

Phone:  (850) 245-4331

Fax:  (850) 922-4195

E-mail: Robert.Griffin@flhealth.gov

Links, reports from vaccine webinar

Thank you for registering for the April 25^th NACCHO webinar, State of the ImmUnion: A Report on Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the U.S.  We hope you were able to attend and that you enjoyed learning about Every Child By Two’s (ECBT) State of the ImmUnion special report, and how prepared the U.S. is to face the threat of vaccine-preventable diseases.  Materials from the webinar are available here on the NACCHO website, including the recording, presentation slides, and State of the ImmUnion special report. For additional policy and advocacy resources, access NACCHO’s government affairs newsletter and advocacy tools which are available on the NACCHO website.

Thank you again to everyone who was able to join and participate in the webinar. Please take a moment to complete the webinar evaluation form to share your experience, feedback or comments. Your response by Friday, May 11 would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Kim Scott
Senior Program Analyst, Immunization

Direct: (202) 595-1123
Email: ksharpe-scott@naccho.org

National Infant Immunization Week

Please join in the National Infant Immunization and World Immunization Week events from Monday, April 23 to 30, 2018.
In south Broward County, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital - Children’s Mobile Health Center will host Immunization Only Days. 
Locations will be in Hallandale Beach (Monday), Miramar (Tuesday), West Park (Wednesday and Thursday) and Pembroke Pines (Friday). For details, call 954-276-5548 (5542 in Spanish).
Encourage a parent to find the Children’s Mobile Van in the community to have their child immunized.
Families living in North Broward can get immunizations from Broward Health or the Florida Department of Health (954-467-4705). We appreciate your support!
Nationally, hundreds of communities across the United States will join those in countries around the world to celebrate the critical role vaccination plays in protecting the health of our children, families, and communities.
The United States celebrates NIIW as part of World Immunization Week, an initiative of the World Health Organization.
The links below tell stories of children and families from Denmark, the Republic of Korea and the Philippines.


http://www.who.int/campaigns/immunization-week/2018/campaign-essentials/en/

http://www.who.int/features/2018/hpv-vaccination-denmark/en/

http://www.who.int/features/2018/cervical-cancer-republic-of-korea/en/

https://medium.com/@who/now-that-a-deadly-disease-is-eliminated-childbirth-is-safer-in-the-philippines-a182574862f6

Submitted by:

Joanne Christopher-Hines, DNP, ARNP

Children’s Mobile Health Center

It Still Takes A Village to Raise A Child!!

 

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niiw/index.html

Nominate for the Childhood Immunization Champion Award

Know anyone you would like to nominate for this prestigious award? Submit through the Florida DOH. Here's how ...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the CDC Foundation is now calling for nominations for the annual Childhood Immunization Champion Award. This is an annual award that recognizes individuals who make a significant contribution toward improving public health through their work in childhood immunization.

The Champion Award is intended to recognize individuals who are working at the local level. It honors those who are doing an exemplary job or going above and beyond to promote or foster childhood immunizations in their communities.

The nomination and selection of a local Champion should be based on meeting one or more of the following criteria:

• Leadership: The candidate is considered an authority on immunization in their community, medical system, or individual practice. Activities may include acting as a spokesperson, trainer, mentor, or educator.
• Collaboration: The candidate has worked to build support for and increase immunization rates in infants and young children. Activities may include establishing or strengthening partnerships, coalitions, committees, working groups, or other.
• Innovation: The candidate has used creative or innovative strategies to promote immunization or address challenges to immunization in their practice, community, state, or region. Activities may include either new strategies or adapting existing strategies in new ways such as for reaching under-immunized populations.
• Advocacy: The candidate is active in advancing policies and best practices to support immunization in infants and young children in their community, state, or region. The candidate cannot be involved in advocacy activities that are related to funding for immunizations.

Nomination packets must be received by the Immunization Section no later than Friday, January 26, 2018. Please email completed packets to Immunization@flhealth.gov.

Awardees will be announced during National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW), which runs April 21–28 in 2018. Champions will receive a certificate of recognition, will be featured on CDC’s web site, and may be recognized by their immunization program during NIIW.

Champions can include coalition members, parents, health care professionals (e.g., physicians, nurses, physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners, medical assistants, etc.), and other immunization leaders who meet the award criteria. State immunization program managers, state and federal government employees of health agencies, individuals who have been affiliated with and/or employed by pharmaceutical companies, and those who have already received the award are not eligible to apply (for details, see page 3 of the nomination packet)[10 pages](https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niiw/champions/downloads/nomination.docx)

For additional information, please visit:
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niiw/champions/index.html.