From the publishers of The New England Journal of Medicine

Save time and stay informed. Our physician-editors offer you clinical perspectives on key research and news.

Physician's First Watch

Like this article?
Get free daily
medical news from Physician's First Watch.

Guidelines Issued for Adult Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis (Tdap) Vaccination

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has issued recommendations for adult use of Adacel — Sanofi Pasteur's tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine, licensed last year.

The guidelines, published in MMWR, suggest the Tdap vaccine be given:

• to adults aged 19 to 64 to replace the tetanus and diphtheria toxoids vaccine (Td) for booster immunization if they got their last dose of the older vaccine at least 10 years earlier

• at intervals of less than 10 years for those at increased risk for pertussis

• to child-care providers and other adults having close contact with infants (ideally before pregnancy for mothers)

• to health care workers with direct patient contact

For the last three groups, the CDC recommends an interval as short as 2 years from the last dose of Td, and says shorter intervals may be used.

Link: MMWR recommendation and report (Free)

Published in Physician's First Watch December 15, 2006

Your Remark:

Reader Remarks are intended to encourage lively discussion of clinical topics with your peers in the medical community. Please consider this when composing your remark.

Fields marked with an * are required.

Name as you'd like it to appear:

Submitting a comment indicates you have read and agreed to the remark guidelines and declare:*

PRIVACY: We will not use your email address, submitted for a comment, for any other purpose nor sell, rent, or share your e-mail address with any third parties. Please see our Privacy Policy.

 

CLEAR erases anything you've added in any part of the form. CONTINUE allows you to check your entire post (and edit it if necessary) before submitting.

To ensure that your Reader Remark is not formatted as one long paragraph, precede new paragraphs with either a blank line or an indentation.

Search

Advanced

Article Tools

Reader Remarks

Sign-In

Forgot your password?

New to Journal Watch?

E-mail Alerts

Delivered to your inbox.
Tailored to your interests. Free.

Sign Up Now!

Journal Watch Newsletters

Available in 13 specialties with convenient delivery and 10 free online CME exams.

Subscribe Now!

Copyright © 2006. Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.