January, 2010 - WellCareTracker™ Now Tracks H1N1 Influenza Vaccination
WellCareTracker™ has been updated to track H1N1 vaccinations, which is recommended for
children from 6 months through 18 years of age, household contacts and caregivers for children
younger than 6 months of age, healthcare and emergency medical services personnel, and pregnant women.
For additional information, please see:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/acip.htm
August, 2008 - CDC Reviews Primary Changes and Updates in Influenza Vaccine Recommendations
The 2008
recommendations include new and updated information. Principal updates and changes include 1) a new recommendation that
annual vaccination be administered to all children aged 5--18 years, beginning in the 2008--09 influenza season, if feasible, but
no later than the 2009--10 influenza season; 2) a recommendation that annual vaccination of all children aged 6
months through 4 years (59 months) continue to be a primary focus of vaccination efforts because these children are at higher risk
for influenza complications compared with older children; 3) a new recommendation that either trivalent inactivated
influenza vaccine or live, attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) be used when vaccinating healthy persons aged 2
through 49 years (the previous recommendation was to administer LAIV to person aged 5--49 years); 4) a recommendation that vaccines
containing the 2008--09 trivalent vaccine virus strains A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1)-like, A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like, and
B/Florida/4/2006-like antigens be used; and, 5) new information on antiviral resistance among influenza viruses in the
United States. Persons for whom vaccination is recommended are listed in boxes 1 and 2. These recommendations also include
a summary of safety data for U.S. licensed influenza vaccines. This report and other information are available at
CDC's influenza website (http://www.cdc.gov/flu), including
any updates or supplements to these recommendations that might
be required during the 2008--09 influenza season. Vaccination and health-care providers should be alert to announcements
of recommendation updates and should check the CDC influenza website periodically for additional information.
September, 2007 - Influenza Alert 2007
Children aged <2 years are at increased risk for influenza-related hospitalizations,
and those aged <5 years have more influenza-related health-care visits than older children.
During the 2005-06 influenza season, the second season after the federal government
recommended annual influenza vaccination for all children aged 6-23 months, coverage remained
low and did not increase substantially from the 2004-05 seasons. According to data from the
Centers for Disease Control, only one in five children aged 6-23 months were fully vaccinated
against influenza and slightly more than one in ten children needing two doses received both
doses during the 2005-2006 season.
Influenza vaccine is the single best way to protect children and their caregivers in group care
from a severe winter illness. All healthy children aged 6 to 59 months, and the household
contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children from birth to 5 years of age should be
vaccinated against influenza annually. Two types of vaccines are available, a flu shot and a
nasal-spray flu vaccine (FluMist). The nasal-spray flu vaccine can be used by children 2-17
years of age and adults (to age 49 years). FluMist should not be administered to anyone with
asthma or to children under the age of 5 years with recurrent wheezing because of the potential
for increased wheezing after receiving the vaccine. People who are allergic to any of
FluMist's components, including eggs or egg products, should also not receive the vaccine.
For more information about influenza, including links to fact sheets in many languages go
to http://www.cdc.gov/flu/.
Note - FREE Influenza Vaccine for Caregiving Staff will be available at the PACCA Conference
October 11 and 12, provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (subject to vaccine
availability and vaccine contraindications). Register at http://www.pacca.org.
March, 2006 -
WellCareTracker™ was featured in a poster presented by Dr. Stuart Weinberg at the
CDC's 40th National Immunization Conference, held Mar 6-9 in Atlanta, GA:
October, 2005 -
WellCareTracker™ was featured in a presentation made by Dr. Stuart Weinberg at the
American Academy of Pediatric's 2005 National Conference and Exhibition,
held Oct 8-12 in Washington, DC:
May, 2004 -
WellCareTracker™ was featured in two presentations made by Dr. Jerold Aronson at the
2004 National Immunization Conference
held May 11-14 in Nashville, TN:
October, 2002 - WellCareTracker™ is presented at the American Academy of
Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in Boston.
August, 2002 - ECELSTRAK renamed to WellCareTracker™. ECELSTRAK originally took
its name from ECELS, a program of the American Academy of Pediatrics, PA Chapter.
July, 2002 - Live use of web-based ECELSTRAK is initiated to process compliance
reports for statewide child care centers in Pennsylvania.
March, 2002 - The web-based version of ECELSTRAK is launched.
For the period 2003-05, dissemination of WellCareTracker for use by early education
providers was supported, in part, by HRSA/MCHB
