Providers have inadequate awareness of PCV20 vaccination recommendations

Two-thirds of health care providers agree or strongly agree with expanding recommendations for the new 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20), according to research published in the Sept. 8 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Noting there are gaps in health care provider knowledge relating to understanding of the adult pneumococcal vaccine recommendations, Rebecca Kahn, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues conducted a health care provider knowledge and attitudes survey to assess the feasibility and acceptability domains of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Evidence to Recommendations framework before the October 2022 ACIP meeting.

The researchers found that two-thirds of the 751 provider respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the policy option under consideration to expand the recommendations for the new PCV20 to adults who had only received the previously recommended PCV13. Knowledge gaps and implementation challenges in existing recommendations were identified in the survey. Currently, PCV20 is recommended for certain adults who have previously received PCV13, as well as to those who have not been vaccinated.

"Gaps in knowledge and challenges to implementing recommendations for use of pneumococcal vaccines indicate a need to increase provider awareness and implementation of the most recent (October 2022) updated pneumococcal vaccination recommendations and to provide tools to assist with patient-specific vaccination guidance," the authors write.

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