MMWR News Synopsis for March 6, 2014

Impact of Requiring Influenza Vaccination for Children Attending Licensed Childcare or Preschool Programs — Connecticut, 2012–13 Influenza Season

Connecticut Department of Public Health, Office of Communications
(860) 509-7270

Preschool-aged children are at high risk for serious consequences of influenza and should be vaccinated against influenza, especially those in settings where transmission is common such as child care facilities. Effective January 2011, preschool-aged children in Connecticut were required to be vaccinated against influenza to attend licensed child care. Investigators from the Yale School of Public Health and the Connecticut Department of Public Health evaluated the effect of this requirement on vaccination rates and on hospitalizations of young children during the 2012-2013 influenza season. Vaccination rates in Connecticut rose more quickly and were higher than children in the rest of the United States. After the requirement was implemented, hospitalization rates for influenza in young children in Connecticut were lower compared with 10 other sites in the United States with similar monitoring.  Requiring influenza vaccination in children attending child care facilities appears to have contributed to lower hospitalization rates from influenza among young children in Connecticut.

Trends in Incidence of End-Stage Renal Disease among Persons with Diagnosed Diabetes — Puerto Rico

CDC Media Relations
404-639-3286

Interventions such as blood glucose and blood pressure control to improve diabetes care and to increase awareness of risk factors for kidney disease in persons with diabetes might be considered to reduce the incidence of kidney failure in Puerto Rico, particularly among women and older persons. Diabetes is a major risk factor for kidney failure, accounting for about two thirds of new cases in Puerto Rico. CDC assessed recent trends in incidence of diabetes-related kidney failure among adults (aged 18 years or older) with diagnosed diabetes in Puerto Rico. After increasing in the late 1990s, the rate of new cases of diabetes-related kidney failure decreased in the 2000s among those aged 18–44 years with diabetes and among men with diabetes. Similar progress was not seen for other groups. From 1996 to 2010, rates of diabetes-related kidney failure showed little change for women with diabetes or for persons with diabetes aged ≥45 years, with the exception of persons with diabetes aged 65–74 years whose rates increased.

CDC Grand Rounds: Preventing Hospital-Associated Venous Thromboembolism

CDC Media Relations
404-639-3286

Public health programs and organizations concerned with patient safety (for example, hospital networks and healthcare payers) should work together to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE).  VTE is a major public health problem, with hundreds of thousands of people affected each year. Half of all VTEs are hospital-associated and could be prevented.  Hospitals that have implemented improvements, such as provider education and systems to record and monitor risk assessment and prophylaxis use have shown that up to 70 percent of hospital-associated VTE can be prevented. For more information on preventing VTE, visit http://www.cdc.gov/dvt.

Notes from the Field

• Rapidly Growing Nontuberculous Mycobacterium Wound Infections among Medical Tourists Undergoing Cosmetic Surgeries in the Dominican

 

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES