ATLANTA — The prioritization plan for use of inactivated influenza vaccine in the event of a supply shortage or delay has been updated to reflect the recently designated high-risk status of children aged 24–59 months.
The vote, of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at its summer meeting, must be approved by CDC and published before it becomes official. If approved, the new prioritization scheme will look like this:
Tier 1
1A
Persons aged 65 years and older with comorbid conditions
Residents of long-term care facilities
1B
Persons aged 2–64 years with comorbid conditions
Persons aged 65 years and older without comorbid conditions
Children aged 6–23 months
Pregnant women
1C
Children aged 24–59 months
Health care personnel
Household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children aged less than 6 months
Tier 2
Household contacts of children and adults at increased risk for influenza-related complications
Healthy persons aged 50–64 years
Tier 3
Persons aged 5–49 years without high-risk conditions
In most vaccine shortfall situations, all three groups in tier 1 can be considered top priority, followed by tiers 2 and 3. It would be necessary to further prioritize risk groups 1A, 1B, and 1C separately only on rare occasions when the supply is extremely limited, Nicole M. Smith, Ph.D., said at the meeting. More information about the use of influenza vaccine and antiviral agents is available at