Template Newsletter/Web Site Blurb

The information below can be customized and posted on your organization’s Web site or included in a newsletter to your members and constituents to let them know that the Adolescent Vaccination toolkit materials are available online and can serve as a resource for them.

Low Immunization Rates Leave Teens and Their Close Contacts

Vulnerable to Infectious Diseases

[Insert Organization] Joins the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases in

Making Online Resource Materials Available to Health Care Professionals

[Insert Organization] recently joined other leading health organizations in supporting an important initiative to increase adolescent immunization rates. As part of the initiative, organized by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), a toolkit containing in-practice resource materials was developed and is now available online to help health care providers educate adolescents and their parents about the benefits of vaccination and the serious illnesses it prevents.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all adolescents receive two newer vaccines: meningococcal conjugate (1 primary dose), tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (1 booster dose), and that all adolescent girls receive the human papillomavirus vaccine (3-dose primary series). The optimal time to administer these vaccinations is at 11-12 years of age. The CDC additionally recommends four catch-up vaccines (hepatitis B, inactivated polio, varicella and measles, mumps and rubella) for adolescents who were not immunized or were under-immunized previously and two vaccines (hepatitis A and pneumococcal polysaccharide) for adolescents with certain high-risk conditions. In addition, the CDC recommends annual immunization of all children 6 months to 18 years.

Vaccination Rates among Adolescent are Unacceptably Low

“Low vaccination rates among adolescents leave them, and their close contacts, like young siblings and elderly grandparents, vulnerable to hospitalization and sometimes death,” said [Insert Organization Spokesperson]. “[Insert Organization] encourages its members to download these informational materials to help communicate the importance of adolescent vaccination rates. By working together we can help to increase immunization rates and protect our community from vaccine-preventable diseases.”

The new toolkit, “Adolescent Vaccination: Bridging to a Healthy Adulthood,” offers health care professionals a variety of resources to promote increased vaccination rates, including a fact sheet on adolescent vaccination, a poster and tent cards, and a customizable letter that doctors can send families, reminding them to set up an immunization appointment for their adolescent children.

How to Access the Adolescent Vaccination Toolkit

The toolkit “Adolescent Vaccination: Bridging to a Healthy Adulthood” is available on NFID’s Web site at [Insert Toolkit URL].

Other Programs to Promote Adolescent Vaccination Awareness

[Insert any appropriate information on your organization’s adolescent vaccination awareness programming.]

About the Adolescent Vaccination Initiative

[Insert Organization] supported the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases Call to Action “Adolescent Immunization: Bridging from a Strong Childhood Foundation to a Healthy Adulthood.” The Call to Action stresses the critical role that vaccination plays in disease control and the benefits of improving vaccination rates among adolescents. The Call to Action and the toolkit materials are available on NFID’s Web site, at [Insert Toolkit URL].

This initiative is made possible through an unrestricted educational grant to NFID from GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis Vaccines and sanofi pasteur.

###