Health

Advisory

DPH RE-ISSUES DECLARATIONS OF SHORTAGE FOR MERCURY-FREE VACCINES

The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) has re-issued declarations allowing Delaware physicians to use two vaccines containing

mercury (thimerosal) as a preservative. These vaccines are not available in mercury-free formulations. The declarations are effective for

12 months.

Normally, Title 16 §510 of the Delaware Code bans the use of mercury containing vaccine for pregnant women and children younger than

8 years. However, the DPH Director can permit the use of mercury containing vaccines if there is shortage of a mercury-free formulation,

or if a mercury-free formulation does not exist.

The re-issued declarations allowing the use of mercury containing vaccine for pregnant women and children younger than 8 years of age are

for the following vaccines:

• Tetanus / diphtheria (Td) vaccine is available only in a mercury containing preparation. The vaccine is administered to children 7years and older.
• Diphtheria / Tetanus (DT) vaccine is available only in a mercury containing preparation. The vaccine is used to protect childrenyounger than 7 years of age who cannot receive the mercury-free Diphtheria / Tetanus / Pertussis (DTaP) vaccine because they are

  intolerant to the Pertussis (P) component.

The law requires a provider administering a mercury containing vaccine to “inform the client, parent or legal guardian of the

client that the vaccine contains mercury, that they believe the vaccine to be medically necessary, and that the Director of Public Health

has made a formal determination that the vaccine may be administered due to the existence of the shortage of mercury-free

vaccines.”

Unlike past years, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) vaccine is not included in this year’s declaration because JEV vaccine is now

available in a mercury free preparation. The vaccine is recommended for adults and children traveling to areas where Japanese

encephalitis virus infection is common. Additional product information is available @ https://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM142570.pdf

For more information, please contact DPH’s Immunization Program at 1-800-282-8672 or (302) 744-1060, or visit DPH’s website at

http://www.dhss.delaware.gov/dph/dpc/immunize.html

************************************

You are receiving this email because you are a registered member of the Delaware Health Alert Network. If you are not a member and would

like to subscribe, please register at https://healthalertde.org

Please note: Some of the files available on this page are in Adobe PDF format which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. A free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded directly from Adobe . If you are using an assistive technology unable to read Adobe PDF, please either view the corresponding text only version (if available) or visit Adobe’s Accessibility Tools page.