Friday, November 21, 2014

Vaccine guidelines for adults and children

Easy-to-read guidelines are available on the Maine CDC and US CDC websites:
In addition, US CDC has developed a fact sheet that addresses common questions about pneumococcal vaccination for adults, including the difference between PCV13 and PPSV23 vaccines:
  • PCV13 (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) protects against 13 of the approximately 90 types of pneumococcal bacteria that can cause pneumococcal disease, including pneumonia, meningitis, and bacteremia.
  • PPSV23 (pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine)protects against 23 types of pneumococcal bacteria. This vaccine helps prevent invasive infections like meningitis and bacteremia, but only offers low levels of protection against pneumonia. 
The full fact sheet is available at http://go.usa.gov/Gha9