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Five vaccines required of US-bound refugees
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Refugees bound for the United States are now to receive two to three doses of five different vaccines before entering the country, according to updates made to the Overseas Immunization Program.
Depending on age and other individual risk factors, refugees will receive vaccines for: polio, measles, mumps and rubella, hepatitis B, pneumococcal conjugate and Haemophilus influenzae type b. The initial vaccines doses will be given 2 to 6 months before departure, during the immigration medical examination.
“Without immunization, refugee communities overseas and in the United States are vulnerable to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases that can disrupt the resettlement process and require costly public health responses,” officials wrote in an MMWR announcement. “The overseas vaccination program is intended to reduce US disease outbreaks by ensuring that refugees arrive in the United States protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine has the regulatory power to prevent communicable disease importation by refugees. Historically, refugees have not been subject to immunization requirements. The overseas vaccination program was implemented in December 2012, and now applies to refugees from Thailand, Nepal, Malaysia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. It covers 50% of refugees entering the US and will likely be expanded to include other countries, according to the report.
The overseas vaccination program is a collaboration between the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and the International Organization for Migration.
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