Dartmouth Medical School - New Flu Vaccine Guidelines Call for Protecting All Children

Hanover, N.H.—All children, starting at six months of age, should get an influenza vaccine each and every year, say new pediatric guidelines, and a Dartmouth pediatrician who helped develop the guidelines stresses that it is both beneficial and safe.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy, published this month in the journal Pediatrics, expands on prior recommendations for protecting school-age children, the population most likely to contract flu and to require influenza-like-illness related medical care. It calls for all children six months through 18 years to be immunized during this 2008-2009 influenza season.

"Children under five are among the most vulnerable to the flu and its serious complications," says Dr. Henry Bernstein, professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases that authored the policy. Targeting these youngsters, he points out, is beneficial, safe and likely to help minimize transmission of influenza to adults, especially senior citizens.

Children under five are among the most vulnerable to the flu and its serious complications.

—Dr. Henry Bernstein
professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth

This AAP policy mirrors a similar recommendation made earlier by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Bernstein is the pediatric liaison to the CDC influenza working group. The CDC stresses that immunization is notably safer than the potential known dangers of getting the flu.

The influenza virus often changes from season-to-season, so people must be immunized annually. Children under the age of nine, who are receiving influenza vaccine for their first time, need two doses for better immunity and protection. Bernstein and his colleagues have developed an algorithm to help health care personnel with this age-related timing. It is available on the Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition (CIIC) website.

The policy statement also recommends annual flu vaccine for: household contacts and out-of-home care providers of children with high-risk conditions, all healthy children younger than five, pregnant women, and health care personnel. Vaccine administration can begin as soon as the influenza vaccine becomes locally available and immunization efforts should continue throughout the entire flu season until May 1.

There are two types of influenza vaccines - one a shot (TIV) and another sprayed up the nose (LAIV). Both vaccines protect against the same strains of influenza virus and can be found without the preservative thimerosal, which has raised unnecessary concern in some people. "The benefits of protecting children against the known risks and complications of influenza far outweigh the hypothetical risks associated with the minute amounts of thimerosal in some currently available forms of influenza vaccine," the authors write.