CANCHID & CLICK4HP Subscribers,
CANCHID and CLICK4HP are two open lists supported by the Distributed
Knowledge Project (DKProj) and Distributed Knowledge. DKProj
supports additional health and medical lists including a closed list
for the International Society for Travel Medicine (ISTR-L) which is
only open to medical practitioners working with travel medicine and
meeting a means test for membership by belonging to ISTR.
Much of that traffic is highly private and deals with actual
existing health problems. Some traffic is more general and in the
case of the GeoSentinel Advisory below is meant for a wider
audience. It is of importance to international travelers in the
pediatric age group and is offered for general distribution. Since
it involves children at risk, in situations where their parents
would believe them protected from risk, I am making this available
to CANCHID and CLICK4HP. I note that the information is available to
the public at:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/announce/default.htm
--------------------------------------------------
GeoSentinel Advisory
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 10:38:17 -0600
From: ISTM Travel Medicine List <[log in to unmask]>
As many of you know, GeoSentinel is a network operated by ISTM for
the detection of emerging pathogens and for responding to important
travel medicine related public health issues in our member clinics.
GeoSentinel is a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control in
Atlanta which provides funding under a collaborative agreement. In
addition to detailed data collection at certain sentinel clinics,
our program includes both passive surveillance and issuance of
clinic advisories to all our member clinics via
electronic means.
The CDC has asked GeoSentinel to disseminate the following advisory
of importance to international travelers in the pediatric age
group. The implicated vaccine was only distributed within the US
but children who received doses may now be spread throughout the
world. It is also possible that vaccine purchased in the US may
have been sent by various multi-national entities to sites overseas.
David O. Freedman, Phyllis E. Kozarsky, GeoSentinel Directors
-------------------------------------
Children Under 2 Years Of Age May Need To Receive Additional
Diphtheria Booster Prior To International Travel
Anyone planning international travel should be up to date on their
diphtheria and tetanus vaccinations. Recently CDC has become aware
of a problem with the potency of the diphtheria component of a
specific lot (Connaught Lot No. 1694732) of Tripedia™ DTaP vaccine;
this lot was distributed in 1998 for use in young children.
Consequently, if you are planning to travel with small children
under the age of 2 to high-risk areas for diphtheria (the former
Soviet Union, Albania, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Brazil,
Philippines, Indonesia, and many countries in Africa and Asia),
please call your physician to see if your child needs an additional
dose of diphtheria vaccine prior to departure. Additional detailed
information and a list of high-risk countries is available on the
National Immunization Program webpage:
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/announce/default.htm
1) FDA announces voluntary recall of Tripedia™ DTaP vaccine lot
0916490 on 1/27/99; 2) new recommendations from CDC/AAP/AAFP for
children who received doses from this lot; 3) and a related detailed
Q&A document are available from this Web-site.
------------ end of
GeoSentinel Advisory ----------
Sam Lanfranco,
Distributed Knowledge, York U., & Bellanet
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