The new 2016 recommended immunization schedule for children and adolescents includes guidance for use of the two recently licensed meningococcal B vaccines and the 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine.

The 2016 schedule, along with footnotes and a catch-up schedule, are published online February 2 on both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website and the American Academy of Pediatrics website The updated schedule was also approved by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Two meningococcal B vaccines have been licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration: Trumenba (Wyeth Pharmaceuticals) in October 2014 and Bexsero (Novartis) in January 2015. In October 2015, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended considering the use of either vaccine for adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 23 years.

In the 2016 chart, a new row has been added for the meningococcal B vaccine. It contains a purple bar denoting the recommendation to vaccinate certain high-risk persons aged 10 years and older and a blue bar denoting the recommendation for administration to non-high-risk groups subject to individual clinical decision making for individuals aged 16 through 23 years (the preferred age range is 16 – 18 years).

For human papillomavirus immunization, the new vaccine nomenclature has been changed to “9vHPV,” to denote Merck’s Gardasil 9, which was licensed in December 2014 to replace the prior 4-valent version. On the chart, the HPV row contains an additional purple bar from age 9 to 10 years, denoting a recommendation to vaccinate high-risk children in that group, including those with a history of sexual abuse.

Other 2016 changes include the following:

• In “Recommended Immunization Schedule for Persons Aged 0 through 18 Years,” the order of the vaccines was changed to group them by the recommended age of administration. The order was also changed within the footnotes.
• A purple bar was added for Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine for children aged 5 to 18 years, denoting the recommendation to vaccinate certain high-risk children in this age group who are unimmunized.
• The inactivated polio vaccine footnote was updated to provide guidance for vaccination of individuals who received only the oral poliovirus vaccine and received all doses before age 4 years. (This will apply mostly to children who were originally immunized outside the United States.)
• The hepatitis B vaccine footnote was revised to more clearly present the timing for postvaccination serologic testing for infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen-positive mothers. The footnote was also revised to present the new CDC recommended interval for postvaccination serologic testing in this population.