CDC Panel: All Kids Should Get Flu Shots

All Kids - Not Just Under 5 - Should Get Vaccinated, CDC Says

(CBS/AP)  All children - not just those under 5 - should get vaccinated against the flu, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday.

The panel voted to expand annual flu shots to virtually all children except infants younger than 6 months and those with serious egg allergies.

That means about 30 million more children could be getting vaccinated. If heeded, it would be one of the largest expansions in flu vaccination coverage in U.S. history. The flu vaccine has been available since the 1940s.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said all children should start getting vaccinated as soon as possible, acknowledging that many doctors have already ordered their vaccine for the 2008-2009 season and may not be able to give the shots until 2009-2010. The flu season generally starts in the fall and continues through spring.

The panel's advice is routinely adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issues vaccination guidelines to doctors and hospitals.

Flu shots were already recommended for those considered to be at highest risk of death or serious illness from the flu, including children ages 6 months to 5 years, adults 50 and older, and people with weakened immune systems

The panel said that should be expanded to include children up to age 18.

Children ages 5 to 18 get flu at higher rates than other age groups, but they don't tend to get as sick. Of the 36,000 estimated annual deaths attributed to the flu, only 25 to 50 occur in children in that age bracket, CDC officials said.

Many more, up to 30 percent of kids, get the flu and spread it - especially to older people for whom it's a more serious, potentially deadly, illness, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports.

But children who stay home sick from school cause parents to stay home, so reducing the illness in this group should cut down days of lost work, some experts said.

Experts believe giving flu shots to more children may also prevent the illness from spreading to adults and the elderly, although studies haven't clearly established that will happen.

Shots are not the only option. There are two forms of the flu vaccine: a shot and a mist that's sprayed into the nose, LaPook reports. The nasal spray vaccine, FluMist, is approved for healthy people ages 2 to 49.

Panel members waffled a bit on whether to make the recommendations kick in immediately. Some public health professionals pushed them to make the clearest endorsement possible of the flu vaccine, concerned that the public is losing faith in flu shots because this year's vaccine was not well matched to circulating viruses.

Indeed, a few argued that the committee should recommend flu shots for every healthy person, rather than adding another set of children now and maybe young adults in a few years.

"Creeping incrementalism, I believe, continues to foster confusion" about who should get the shot and how important it is, said Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert.

The head of the panel, Dr. Dale Morse, asked for a report on universal vaccination of adults.

Meanwhile, vaccine makers said they expect to be able to produce enough doses next season to accommodate an extra 30 million children, but panel members had concerns about how the doses would be given to so many.

There's no other vaccine that's given to nearly all kids every year. Most schools aren't set up to do it, and physicians groups said they weren't sure if doctors were ready to handle a flood of children seeking vaccinations every year.

"This is the only vaccination that pediatricians in my community don't want to have to give," said Dr. Carol Baker, a Baylor College of Medicine professor who sits on the panel.

Baker said she still felt the recommendation should go into effect for the next flu season. But groups representing pediatricians and family physicians said they wanted more time to plan for a possible crush.

Maybe they shouldn't worry. Some experts noted that only a fraction of people recommended to get flu vaccinations actually go through with it.

"We probably will need to have low expectations for coverage in the first few years of implementation" of the ages 5-through-18 recommendation, said Dr. Tomy Fiore, a CDC epidemiologist.

Before the vote, the panel heard a presentation of a study that found the vaccine was 75 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations from the flu in children 6 months to 23 months.

"We haven't had data showing prevention of severe outcomes like that in that age group before," Fiore said.

[actistmom]

The AP article states "But children who stay home sick from school cause parents to stay home, so reducing the illness in this group should cut down days of lost work, some experts said." If the CDC wants to concern itself about parental loss of work, then they should become working family activists and work for family friendly leave policies. We are HUMANS - we get SICK!!! What we need us for Business to understand this is what happens to us. It was the CDC who told us we were over using anti-biotics on our children creating drug resitent infections. Want something to do CDC to decrease workplace absenteeism - find a cure for the common cold. Shabby excuse of lost work time to endorse their vaccines - what a shame! Give us a break - give us a sick day! By the way, do you know how many children are forced to stay home alone when they are sick? Perhaps you should work on reducing the driving age to age 10 so sick children can drive themselves to the doctors so their parents won''t lose time from work.

[gaye5]

Sorry about the spelling above...
Are there not three types of influenza viruses: A, B, and C, thus since the flu virus changes each year, the flu vaccine has to also change. There are many strains of flu and unless you have a crystal ball, it is difficult to tell which one will circulate in any given year. Moreover, because it can take up to nine months to manufacture a flu vaccine, vaccine producers have to predict early in the year which influenza virus will circulate in the following year, somany of them will have gone or changed, but the manufactures still have to get their money in even if it is at our expense.

To do this, vaccine makers collect flu viruses from all around the world every year to decide which viruses should be used.

[gaye5]

concerned01 you are so right, if people knew what was in what they pump into their children they would never get them immunised. yes a very small proportion of children were efected with what was once considered the MILD CHILD HOODDISEASES, but 40 eyars ago we didnt have mass cot deaths, Autism, ADD, children dying of cancers in the many thousands a years, etc,, so is this the price that we have to pay for stopping our children building their natural immune system by getting the mild childhood diseases..

[torch1000us1]

The flu shot is hit and miss at best. A 15 year old in my home town in California just died from "the Flu". It actually was diagnoised as the flu, but was far worse. It was a mutated virus from the flu. The bugs are getting smarter as humans try to ward them off. One day if we don''t build ammunities to them, they will win.

[grammawhamma]

This is a bad idea. I''m 55 years old and I got the flu this year. It was miserable but I survived it. How are we supposed to develope any immunity if we live in our sterile domes? The shots are just guess jobs anyway...this year they guessed wrong.

[standlee5]

Wait a minute. I don''t trust this recommendation for a minute. Can''t most kids fight off the flu for god''s sakes. How effective is our society''s natural immune system going to be if kids aren''t allowed to fight off any bugs on their own.

[lucasnico]

concerned01.....great point. No vaccine, at any level, especially for kids, should contain ANY amount of mercury.

[kansas1946]

Brother. If it isn''t one thing it is another. These flu shots are marginally helpful at best. Half the people that get them, get the flu anyway. The only way for humans to build immunity to some of these viruses is just to get them and live through it. People with compromised immune systems and the elderly should really be the only people encouraged to get the shots. The immunizations come with some risk, so it is not worth trying to immunize the entire polulation.

[lilchepin]

The job of the CDC is to CONTROL disease, not to prevent it, nor to elimiate it. Their recommendation is right in line with that. Otherwise, they might "recommend" that kids get off fast food, sugary drinks, highly processed foods, eat primarily whole foods and exercise regularly. That would go a long way in strenghthening their immune systems to avoid the flu in the first place.

[cyberus-2009]

Hmmm .. I wonder what the odds are that some/most/all of that *panel* are pharma-corpers