 If you placed a request for AVP vaccines in the most recent order cycle, you likely already received your order or will receive it soon.
A reminder that when your order arrives, you must also receive the doses into your inventory in the IIS. Refer to page 5 of this document for instructions on how to do this. You will notice that all vaccines received through the AVP will have the ADU- modifier added to the lot numbers, so you will no longer need to take the step to add it manually.
Additionally, your monthly submitted inventory report should include all AVP vaccines that you have on hand. If any are missing from prior orders, please add them manually to your inventory and add the ADU- modifier to the lot number.
Thank you for your partnership!
 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Advisory last week regarding an increase in invasive meningococcal disease due to serogroup Y Neisseria meningitidis. Washington State is not seeing an increase in meningococcal disease. The preliminary case count for 2023 is four confirmed cases, and three confirmed cases have been reported to-date in 2024. We are sharing this Health Advisory for your situational awareness.
We also would like to highlight the following information:
“Cases caused by this strain are disproportionately occurring in people ages 30–60 years (65%), Black or African American people (63%), and people with HIV (15%). In addition, most cases of invasive meningococcal disease caused by ST-1466 in 2023 had a clinical presentation other than meningitis: 64% presented with bacteremia, and at least 4% presented with septic arthritis. Of 94 patients with known outcomes, 17 (18%) died; this case-fatality rate is higher than the historical case-fatality rate of 11% reported for serogroup Y cases in 2017–2021.”
For more information about meningococcal disease, including symptoms, surveillance, treatment, and prevention, please review the Meningococcal Disease Investigation Guideline. If you suspect meningococcal disease, please call the local health jurisdiction of the patient’s residence immediately.
Resources:
 CDC recommends that persons 65 + years of age should receive an additional dose of 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine.
- 4 months or more after their first 2023-2024 formula COVID-19 vaccine.
Standing orders are available on the CDC website:
These talking points recommend an additional booster vaccine for older and immunocompromised adults. A related social media graphic is also available. Both are available in both English and Spanish. Share with your communities!
A reminder that Medicare Part B covers COVID-19 vaccines without cost sharing for consumers. This includes Medicare Advantage plans. More information on COVID-19 vaccine coverage can be found here. Individuals with Medicare do not qualify for AVP vaccine.
 Starting March 18, McKesson began shipping refrigerated coolers with one of two different temperature indicator cards.
Containers will either have:
•(existing) FREEZEmarker
•(new) TransTracker
Both cards use the same temperature indicator. You will not receive both cards in the same shipment. Please use the same process for checking for temperature excursions with the new card.
 CDC launches new GISVaxView
- This geographic information system (GIS) provides jurisdictions and other partners geospatial data and tools to inform planning, implementation, and evaluation of vaccine activities and outcomes. The system allows visitors to better understand the local-level indicators that contribute to vaccine confidence and coverage, visualize data for populations at increased risk, identify community resources and barriers, and connect community stakeholders.
- This complements RespVaxView, CDC’s respiratory virus season weekly vaccination dashboards which include the vaccination data shared in the Vaccine Activity Planner.
- GISVaxView is built upon CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Mapping Tool | CDC, which will be phased out on April 10, 2024.
 The Washington Department of Health (DOH) hosted a webinar on Wednesday, April 3 from 12-1pm. The topics included a discussion of measles signs and symptoms, transmission, vaccine recommendations, measles epidemiology, and outbreak control guidelines.
Additional information around measles can also be found here.
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