CDC: Influenza vaccine recommendations unchanged for 2014-2015 season

Issue: March 2014

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously to reaffirm last year’s annual influenza vaccination recommendations for the 2014 to 2015 influenza season, according to a presentation during the meeting.

All people aged 6 months and older are recommended to receive influenza vaccine. Members of the committee plan to discuss any proposed changes at the June ACIP meeting.

“One issue would be any language related to live attenuated influenza vaccine and inactivated influenza vaccine, even if there were not to be a preference, we have done the GRADE analysis and will have some summary of that either in or linked to the policy note,” Lisa Grohskopf, MD, MPH, of the influenza division of the CDC, said during the meeting.

Jeffrey Duchin, MD, an ACIP member, also followed-up on the issue of preferential recognition of live attenuated vaccine and said that ACIP is strongly considering a preferential recommendation and advised the committee to think about the option before the June meeting.

Jeff Duchin

“We didn’t have the opportunity to vote on that today, even though many of us feel that it’s long overdue,” he said. “We have a vaccine that even CDC has acknowledged on a public webpage as superior in young children, yet we haven’t made the recommendation. I just want to make sure all of the members understand that it’s under serious consideration for the June meeting.”

As for new influenza vaccines, Grohskopf said at this time no new influenza vaccines are in the process of being licensed, but more are expected in the future.

“There may be some new licensures between now and the June meeting,” she said. “Currently, in the draft policy, not all of the licensed vaccines are summarized in the draft table, which is essentially identical to the current season’s table. It will be updated, of course, as new package inserts are available and also with any new licensures as they occur.”