BACKGROUND:
Over the past 3 years, there has been progressively stronger language for the use of influenza vaccine among infants and toddlers. This year, as indicated in the Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, all children 6-23 months of age are recommended to receive annual flu vaccine.

OBJECTIVE:
To describe how an immunization registry can help track compliance with a new recommendation, as well as assess the impact of a vaccine shortage.

METHOD:
Influenza doses reported to the New York Citywide Immunization Registry (CIR) were analyzed over 3 consecutive flu seasons: 2002-2003, 2003-2004 and 2004 2005. Total number of doses reported to CIR for all children and for children 6 to 23 months old were compared among the 3 flu seasons.

RESULT:
The total number of influenza doses reported to the CIR nearly doubled from 2002-2003 to 2003-2004, from 36,680 to 70,666. Data for 2004-2005 are not complete yet, but doses administered to-date indicate a sharp increase over last year. Most doses of flu vaccine were given in November in 2002-2003, and in December in 2003-2004. It is too soon to observe the impact of the flu shortage. More complete results will be available in March 2005.

CONCLUSION:
An immunization registry can be used to track vaccine uptake and vaccine shortage, and can inform future policy decisions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
To understand how an immunization registry can be useful in tracking vaccine uptake and monitoring the impact of a vaccine shortage.