MONDAY, Jan. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The 2013 recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedules have been approved, according to a policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published online Jan. 28 in Pediatrics.

Noting increasing complexity of the childhood and adolescent immunization schedules and a lack of space for new information in the footnotes, the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases has changed the design of the 2013 immunization schedules.

The new five-page 2013 format includes a single schedule for all children aged 0 to 18 years, replacing the previous schedules for children 0 to 6 years of age and 7 to 18 years of age. To highlight school entry and adolescent vaccine age group recommendations, new columns have been added at age 4 to 6 years and 11 to 12 years. Expanded footnotes now contain the recommendations for routine vaccination, for catch-up vaccination, and for vaccination of youth with high-risk conditions or in special circumstances. Specific changes from the 2012 recommendations include: clarification of the number of doses for RV1 and RV5 in the rotavirus footnotes; tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis is now recommended for pregnant adolescents and adults during each pregnancy; and a footnote clarifying that only one dose of Haemophilus influenzae type b should be administered to unvaccinated children 15 months of age or older.

According to the committee, "the 2013 recommended childhood and adolescent immunization schedules have been approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians."

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