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Last year, the United States experienced the highest influenza death toll in at least four decades. An estimated 80,000 Americans died of the flu or flu complications last winter. ‘“That’s huge,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert. The tally was...

In 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office of Inspector General, conducted a study called, Vaccines for Children Program: Vulnerabilities in Vaccine Management. The study was conducted to gauge how well VFC providers were meeting certain requirements for

In 2010, approximately 82 million vaccine doses were administered to an estimated 40 million children in the United States through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program at a cost of $3.6 billion. Vaccines must be stored and handled appropriately throughout the cold chain (from...

Pharmacy Purchasing & Productsrecently released results from their 2018 refrigeration survey.  This survey contained feedback from 367 Directors of Pharmacy from US-based hospitals. The results of the survey indicate that hospital adoption of medical-grade refrigeration...

With millions of medications being compounded each year, it is important to understand the risks of sterile compounding and for healthcare workers to follow published guidelines for safety and efficacy. Compounded drugs made outside of recommended guidelines risk being...

National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) occurs each August to highlight the importance of vaccination in people of all ages and stages. NIAM is all about raising awareness and speaking out on the important role vaccines play in protecting our communities from serious, life...

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) includes 15 medical and public health experts who develop recommendations for the use of vaccines in the United States. The recommendations stand as public health guidelines for the safe and effective use of vaccines and...

With General Chapter USP <800> creating quite the buzz, we are fielding tons of questions regarding refrigeration in the hazardous drug clean room. We have recapped some of the most common refrigeration questions below. You can also download these questions and answers by...

At the 2018 ASHP Summer Meeting, one presentation discussed the 14 latest ISMP best practices to combat medication errors. More than 2,000 “events” have been submitted to ISMP’s national medication errors and vaccine errors reporting program from March 2017 through February 2018.

Two vaccines for the prevention of herpes zoster (shingles) are licensed for use in the United States and recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). RZV and ZVL are two completely different vaccines. They differ by type, dose, schedule, ACIP...