H1N1 Protection Added To Next Season’s Flu Shots

March 11, 2010 by Infowars Ireland

A CDC advisory panel recommends nearly everyone in the U.S. receive the new enhanced vaccine.

By Christine S. Moyer
www.ama-assn.org
March 8, 2010.

At the peak of the influenza A(H1N1) virus epidemic last year, Atlanta internist Sandra Fryhofer, MD, had to refuse vaccine for some patients because they did not fall into the priority groups set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That shouldn’t be a problem during the next flu season, as the Food and Drug Administration has decided to include a pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus in the Northern Hemisphere’s 2010-11 seasonal influenza vaccine.

“This will make vaccine strategies much simpler so we can focus on getting people vaccinated and protected rather than trying to figure out which group they’re in or should they get [the vaccine] now or later,” said Dr. Fryhofer, clinical associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and a member of the American Medical Association Council on Science and Public Health.

The FDA announced Feb. 23 that an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus would be included in next season’s flu vaccine. This is the same virus used in the 2009 H1N1 monovalent vaccine.

Also included in the upcoming influenza vaccine will be an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus and a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.

The FDA’s move was followed a day later by a federal panel’s recommendation to administer next season’s flu vaccine to nearly all Americans, including healthy young people, a group that was disproportionately affected by H1N1.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the CDC on vaccine issues, on Feb. 24 voted to expand seasonal flu immunization to everyone except babies younger than 6 months.

Previous vaccine recommendations applied to about 85% of the population, but did not include healthy people age 19 to 49 unless they had close contact with others considered at high risk for the flu, according to the CDC.

ACIP’s proposal will go to the CDC and Dept. of Health and Human Services. If approved, it would become policy and be considered the standard practice of care for vaccines, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

“The 2009 H1N1 pandemic showed us that elderly people aren’t necessarily the only ones at high risk for serious consequences of influenza,” Skinner said. “The committee thought the time was now to really recommend everyone get a flu vaccine.”

But there is concern that the increased demand for seasonal flu vaccine, caused by expanding the recommendations, could leave practices waiting longer than usual for requested doses, said family physician Tamarah Duperval, MD, MPH. Mile Square Health Center in Chicago, where Dr. Duperval is the medical director, typically receives seasonal flu vaccine near the end of November.

Meanwhile, a new seasonal flu immunization, Sanofi Pasteur’s Fluzone High-Dose, will be available for adults 65 and older. This vaccine is formulated so that each 0.5 mL dose contains 180 micrograms of influenza virus hemagglutinin, rather than the 45 micrograms contained in other currently licensed seasonal flu vaccines for adults. Read more…