In October 2017, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to approve the Recommended Immunization Schedule for Adults Aged 19 Years or Older—United States, 2018. The 2018 adult immunization schedule summarizes ACIP recommendations in two figures and a table of contraindications and precautions for vaccines recommended for adults, and is intended is to assist health-care providers in implementing the current ACIP recommendations for vaccinating adults. The schedule can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules.

The full ACIP recommendations for each vaccine are available at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/index.html. The 2018 adult immunization schedule has also been approved by the American College of Physicians (https://www.acponline.org), the American Academy of Family Physicians (https://www.aafp.org), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (https://www.acog.org), and the American College of Nurse-Midwives (http://www.midwife.org). The ACIP-recommended use of each vaccine is developed after an in-depth review of vaccine-related data, including data on disease epidemiology, vaccine efficacy and effectiveness, vaccine safety, feasibility of program implementation, and economic aspects of immunization policy.

The adult immunization schedule also contains information on general principles of immunization for adults; considerations for special populations, such as pregnant women; reference resources pertinent to adult immunization; instructions for reporting adverse events associated with vaccinations and suspected cases of reportable vaccine-preventable diseases; and an ACIP-approved list of standardized abbreviations for vaccines recommended for adults.

The two figures in the adult immunization schedule are accompanied by footnotes that provide important details on vaccination recommendations, such as the number of doses in a vaccination series and dosing intervals. Health-care providers are advised to use the figures and the footnotes together. Changes in the 2018 adult immunization schedule from the previous year’s schedule include new ACIP recommendations for the use of recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) for adults aged 50 years or older and the use of an additional dose of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) in a mumps outbreak setting.