This report summarizes recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) concerning the use of certain immunizing agents in health-care workers (HCWs) in the United States. It was prepared in consultation with the Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) and is consistent with current HICPAC guidelines for infection control in health-care personnel.
Perinatal transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) accounts for virtually all new HIV infections in children (1). Through 1993, an estimated 15,000 HIV-infected children were born to HIV-positive women in the United States (2). In 1994, clinical trials demonstrated a two-thirds reduction in the risk for perinatal transmission associated with treatment of HIV-infected pregnant women and their infants with zidovudine (ZDV) therapy (3).
"Children Living in a World with AIDS" is the theme designated by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for this year's World AIDS Day, December 1, 1997. World AIDS Day focuses attention on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic. Worldwide, an estimated 23 million persons are infected with HIV; of these, approximately 40% are women. By the end of 1997, an estimated 1 million children aged less than 15 years are expected to be infected with HIV; of these, approximately 90% live in developing countries.
The following map provides the annual rates of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) per 100,000 population, by state of residence from July 1996 through June 1997. The accompanying table lists the metropolitan areas with the 50 highest annual rates of AIDS per 100,000 population.
Among men who have sex with men (MSM), gonorrhea trends may reflect changes in sexual behaviors that also influence risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (1). Data from the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP) were used to assess trends in gonococcal infection (GC) among MSM.
Provisional surveillance data about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) for the first 6 months of 1996 indicated a decrease in deaths among persons with AIDS, attributed primarily to the effect of antiretroviral therapies on the survival of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This report describes a decline in AIDS incidence during 1996 compared with 1995 and the continued decline in AIDS deaths; the findings indicate that HIV therapies are having a widespread beneficial impact on the rate of HIV disease progression in the United States.
In February 1996, transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by an unknown route involving an HIV-infected man and his previously uninfected female sex partner was reported to CDC. This report summarizes the epidemiologic investigation of this transmission, which suggests that the woman was infected through mucous membrane exposure to contaminated blood.
In 1994, the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recognized that, although strategies were available to reduce the frequency of opportunistic infections in patients who have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, information regarding prevention of both exposure and disease often was published in journals not regularly reviewed by health-care providers. In response, USPHS/IDSA developed comprehensive guidelines for health-care providers and patients that consolidated information pertaining to the prevention of opportunistic infections in persons infected with HIV.
As of December 1996, approximately one third (36%) of the 573,000 cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) among adults reported to CDC were directly or indirectly associated with injecting-drug use. Syringe-exchange programs (SEPs) are one of the strategies for preventing infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among injecting-drug users (IDUs). The goal of SEPs is to reduce the transmission of HIV and other bloodborne infections associated with drug injection by providing sterile syringes in exchange for used, potentially contaminated syringes.
The following map provides the annual rates of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) per 100,000 population, by state of residence from January through December 1996. The accompanying table lists the metropolitan areas with the 50 highest annual rates of AIDS per 100,000 population.
This report updates the last recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) concerning pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (MMWR 1989;38:64-8,73-6). ACIP recommends that the vaccine be used more extensively and administered to all persons in the following groups: a) persons aged greater than or equal to 65 years, b) immunocompetent persons aged greater than or equal to 2 years who are at increased risk for illness and death associated with pneumococcal disease because of chronic illness, c) persons aged greater than or equal to 2 years with functional or anatomic asplenia, d) persons aged greater than or equal to 2 years living in environments in which the risk for disease is high, and e) immunocompromised persons aged greater than or equal to 2 years who are at high risk for infection.
Cumulative AIDS cases among persons aged greater than or equal to 13 years reported to CDC based on the 1993 expanded surveillance case definition from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories were analyzed by year of report, race/ethnicity, and mode of risk/exposure. Estimates of AIDS incidence and deaths were adjusted for the effects of delays in reporting. For analyses by mode of risk/exposure, estimates were adjusted for the anticipated reclassification of cases initially reported without an HIV risk/exposure.
MMWR Recommendations and Reports, January 24, 1997 / 46(RR-3);1-25
These revised recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) replace recommendations on poliomyelitis issued in 1982 and 1987, and present a new ACIP poliovirus vaccination policy that increases reliance on inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). This change in policy is the most substantive since the introduction of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) in 1961.
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This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.