AAFP, CDC Announce Change to Childhood Immunization Schedule

The CDC and AAFP have made one change to this year's childhood immunization schedule (4-page PDF; About PDFs) that modifies a specific, bulleted portion of the footnote regarding the hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine.

The new footnote reads, "For infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive mothers, administer HepB vaccine and 0.5 mL of hepatitis B immune globulin within 12 hours of birth. These infants should be tested for HBsAg and antibody to HBsAg 1 to 2 months after completion of at least 3 doses of the HepB series, at age 9 through 13 months (generally at the next well-child visit)."

The revised footnote appears as an erratum in the March 2 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

In other vaccine news, New York, N.Y.-based Pfizer Inc. recently announced it is voluntarily recalling one lot of its 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Prevnar 13) in 0.5-mL prefilled syringes. The recall is being conducted at the wholesale level only.

Pfizer, which markets the vaccine in the United States, initiated the recall after it was discovered that the lot was formulated and filled with expired serotype 3 conjugate material.

The affected lot number is F73652, with an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2013.