Division of Bacterial Diseases (DBD) News Bulletin

Vaccine News

ACIP Recommends Serogroup B Meningococcal Vaccine

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted during its February meeting to recommend that persons 10 years of age and older who are at an increased risk for meningococcal disease should be vaccinated with serogroup B meningococcal vaccine. ACIP identified persons at increased risk to include those with persistent complement component deficiencies or anatomic or functional asplenia, and microbiologists routinely exposed to isolates of the bacteria that cause meningococcal disease (Neisseria meningitidis), as well as those identified to be at increased risk because of a serogroup B meningococcal disease outbreak. The recommendation became official CDC policy on June 12. During its June meeting, ACIP supported serogroup B meningococcal vaccination for teens and young adults (16 through 23 years olds) under a category B recommendation. A category B recommendation allows clinicians to weigh the risk of the disease with the risks and benefits of the vaccine for individual patients, while providing access to these vaccines. This new ACIP recommendation will become official CDC policy once published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

ACIP Harmonizes Interval Recommendations for Adult Pneumococcal Vaccination

In June, ACIP voted to change the recommended interval between doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) for adults 65 years or older. The new recommendation is that PPSV23 should be given at least 1 year following a dose of PCV13; the previous recommendation was an interval of 6 to 12 months. This vote does not change the recommended 1-year interval between vaccinations if an adult 65 years or older has already received PPSV23 and needs PCV13. Instead, this recommendation will allow the recommended interval between these vaccinations to match, regardless of which vaccine is administered first.

Meetings

The Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs) Steering Committee Meeting was held May 18‒19, 2015 in Atlanta, GA. It was the 20^th anniversary and the “hot topics” included antimicrobial resistance and advanced molecular detection.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) General Meeting was held May 30‒June 2, 2015 in New Orleans, LA and several DBD laboratory scientists presented at the meeting. Al Benitez presented “Rapid Detection of Human Pathogenic Mycoplasma Species Using a Multiplex Real-Time PCR Assay.” Jeff Mercante presented “Whole Genome Sequence Analysis for High Level Discrimination of Legionella pneumophila Isolated during Outbreak Investigations.” Shatavia Morrison presented “Bioinformatics Analysis Pipeline for Rapid Molecular Detection and Characterization of Atypical Bacteria that Cause Pneumonia.” Vera Semenova presented “Development of a High Throughput anti-PA IgG Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Screening Assay (ELISA) for Anthrax Emergency Response.”Velusamy Srinivasan presented “Real-Time PCR Assay for Detection of Streptococcus suis from Clinical Specimens.” Lucia Tondella presented “Reemergence of Pertussis and Considerations for Strain Evolution.” Jonas Winchell presented “Targeted Re-sequencing and Metagenomics Analysis to Identify and Characterize Pathogens in Respiratory Specimens from Unexplained Respiratory Diseases Outbreak (URDO) Responses.”

The Pneumonia Investigators Meeting was held June 8‒9, 2015 in Washington, DC. The purpose of this meeting was to review the methods and results of various pneumonia and sepsis etiology studies. DBD staff presented on behalf of ANISA, the Aetiology of Neonatal Infections in South Asia project.

TheAmerican Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Annual Conference was held June 27‒July 1, 2015 in Atlanta, GA. In conjunction with the meeting, industry guidance on legionellosis was released: ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015, Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems. The document, which DBD experts contributed to, establishes minimum legionellosis risk management requirements for building water systems. RBD’s Claressa Lucas co-chaired a discussion entitled “Electronic nicotine delivery systems and indoor air quality” for the ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee’s session.

Mark your calendar for these upcoming meetings:

• Advanced Molecular Detection Day at CDC, September 28, 2015, Atlanta, GA
• IDWeek, October 7-11, 2015, San Diego, CA
• 2^nd Annual MenAfriNet Partners Meeting, October 20‒22, 2015, Niamey, Niger
• American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition, October 24‒27, 2015, Washington, DC
• American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, October 31‒November 4, 2015, Chicago, IL

 Top of Page