Vaccinating Preterm Infants: We Can Do Better! :

When an infant is born preterm, so much can happen in their clinical course that unintentionally routine care components like vaccinations can be overlooked. Although these infants are at increased risk for experiencing a vaccine-preventable infection, they may not be receiving their vaccines in a timely manner.  But just how often do we not vaccinate preterm infants at their scheduled time similar to full-term infants? To answer that Hofstetter et al. (10.1542/peds.2018-3520), in a study being released this week in our journal,  looked at infants born in Washington state between 2008-2013 at one academic medical center to see if they received the recommended 7-vaccine series by 19 months of age or had at least caught up by 36 months.  Sadly, early- and late-preterm infants had lower timely vaccine completion rates than term or postterm infants. This was also seen for influenza vaccination coverage, too.  Just as troubling was that one-third of those not fully vaccinated by 19 months had not been caught up by 36 months.  Clearly, there is work to be done and the authors of this vaccination article make some sharp points to help encourage us to vaccinate our infant patients born preterm when they are the appropriate chronologic age, and not base vaccines schedules on a gestational age that makes keeping track of when to dose vaccinations much more confusing.  Inject some time into reading this important study and learn more.