MMWR News Synopsis

Suicide Rates by Major Occupational Group — 17 States, 2012 and 2015

CDC Media Relations
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CDC recommends a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, including enhancing social connectedness, strengthening financial supports, decreasing stigma, encouraging help-seeking, and limiting easy access to lethal means among people at risk for suicide. Additionally, employers can create a plan for how to respond should a suicide affect their organization. The media can help by following suicide reporting recommendations. Help is available at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The suicide rate among the U.S. working age population increased 34 percent during 2000-2016. CDC researchers examined occupations of 22,053 people aged 16-64 years old who died by suicide in the 17 states participating in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) in 2012 and 2015. The highest suicide rates by occupational group in 2012 and 2015 were Construction and Extraction (males) and Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media (females). Suicide prevention is best achieved through comprehensive strategies and approaches that target risk and protective factors across individual, relationship, community, and societal-levels and across all sectors, private and public. CDC’s technical package to prevent suicide is a resource for communities, including workplace settings.

Global Routine Vaccination Coverage — 2017

CDC Media Relations
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Global coverage with the third dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis-containing vaccine (DTP3); third dose of polio vaccine (Pol3); and first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) has remained steady over the past several years. To improve immunization coverage globally, it is important to improve access to and increase demand for high-quality vaccination services among communities with suboptimal vaccination coverage. Rapid population growth is one contributing factor to the challenges in maintaining or increasing coverage in countries where DTP3 coverage has declined or remained steady. National immunization programs must improve their reach and sustain high vaccination coverage to eliminate preventable disease and death of children. Substantial progress in global routine vaccination coverage has been made since the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in 1974. In 2017, global coverage with the third dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis-containing vaccine (DTP3) and the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) was 85 percent, increasing from 79 percent in 2007. In 2017, 62 percent of children who did not receive DTP3 lived in 10 countries; trends in vaccination coverage (2007–2017) improved in 7 of these 10 countries. Improvements in national immunization program performance are necessary to reach and sustain high vaccination coverage and increase protection from vaccine-preventable disease for all children. To have the largest impact on vaccination coverage globally, it is key to prioritize countries with the highest number of unvaccinated children.

Progress Toward Global Eradication of Dracunculiasis — January 2017–June 2018

CDC Media Relations
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With only 30 dracunculiasis cases in humans reported in 2017, the goal of eradicating Guinea worm disease appears to be on the horizon. However, infections in dogs and insecurity in Mali and South Sudan remain challenges to eradication efforts. Dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease, is a parasitic infection targeted for eradication. Annual human cases have declined from about 3.5 million cases in 20 countries in 1986 to 30 cases in Chad and Ethiopia in 2017. During January–June 2018, only seven cases total were reported, from Angola, Chad, and South Sudan. In Chad, Guinea worm disease infections also are present in dogs and have far outnumbered human cases in the country since 2012. These infections declined 35 percent between 2016 and 2017, but increased 30 percent during January–June 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. Mali and Ethiopia also have small numbers of animal infections. While the world is closer than ever to Guinea worm disease eradication, dog infections and insecurity in Mali and South Sudan continue to be challenges for the last countries seeking Guinea worm disease eradication.

Updated Framework for Development of Evidence-Based Recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

CDC Media Relations
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The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) adopted an updated process for developing evidence-based recommendations at its February 2018 meeting that is consistent with current Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. This report summarizes an update to the ACIP process for developing evidence-based recommendations. The ACIP adopted the GRADE approach for developing evidence-based recommendations in 2010. GRADE methodology has continued to evolve since that time, particularly the use of Evidence to Decision or Recommendation (EtD or EtR) frameworks to support the process of moving from evidence to decision and provide transparency regarding the impact of additional factors on recommendation deliberations. ACIP has developed a modified EtR framework tailored to the needs of ACIP consistent with these advances in the GRADE approach, which was formally adopted at the February 2018 ACIP meeting. This standardized and more explicit process for developing ACIP recommendations is expected to enhance transparency, consistency, and communication.

• Use of Electronic Cigarettes and Any Tobacco Product Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2018
• Retraction Notice: Suicide Rates by Occupational Group — 17 States, 2012
• Correction and Republication: Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2012

• Birth Rates by Urbanization Level and Age Group of Mother — National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2017

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CDC works 24/7 protecting America’s health, safety and security. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or from human activity or deliberate attack, CDC responds to America’s most pressing health threats. CDC is headquartered in Atlanta and has experts located throughout the United States and the world.