Flu Vaccine Plentiful This Year< October 15, 2002 > If you are hoping to escape the misery of the flu this year, health officials have good news for you. Unlike the last two years, there is no predicted shortage of flu vaccine, US Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona announced recently at a joint press conference with the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) and the National Coalition for Adult Immunization. "There is plenty of vaccine available at this time," said NFID director Dr. William Schaffner. "There are no manufacturing or regulatory issues this year, though the official recommendations are that people who are at highest risk should be vaccinated first." Influenza, more commonly known as the flu, is a viral illness that causes an abrupt onset of symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, sore throat, cough, runny nose, and headache. Complications can include secondary infections, such as bacterial pneumonia. According to Carmona, influenza and pneumococcal disease together are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. Flu is responsible for more than 20,000 deaths and over 100,000 hospitalizations every year. Ninety percent of those deaths occur in people over age 65, according to the Surgeon General. There are about 500,000 cases of pneumococcal pneumonia in the United States every year, accounting for up to 50 percent of all adult pneumonias. Approximately 40,000 Americans die annually of pneumococcal infections. Such infections are also common in infants and toddlers, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "A lot of people are suffering needlessly from these diseases," added Dr. Walter Orenstein, assistant US Surgeon General. Flu season in the United States generally runs from December through March. The groups that should get vaccinated first for flu, starting this month, include:
While not an official recommendation, health officials are encouraging parents of children between the ages of 6 months and 23 months to get them vaccinated because they are at risk of complications. Also, parents and caregivers should be vaccinated as well, so they will not bring flu into the home, Schaffner said. If you are in one of these groups and cannot get vaccinated in October, try to get vaccinated in November. Even getting immunized in December will likely provide you with protection against the flu. From November on, those who should be vaccinated for flu include healthy individuals over 50, and anyone who does not want to get the disease. The vaccine is not recommended for children under 6 months. And people allergic to eggs or who have had a previous serious reaction to the influenza vaccine should not receive it. Schaffner said the vaccine is safe and effective, and cannot give you the flu. Some people will have a sore arm for eight hours or so, but other side effects are rare, he added. To try to prevent secondary pneumonia infections, health officials are also urging anyone in the following groups to get a pneumococcal vaccine along with their flu shot:
Dr. Christopher Carpenter, an infectious disease specialist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., said the most important message is, "Get vaccinated and get vaccinated early if you're in a high-risk group." Orenstein said vaccination rates are much lower than they should be, particularly for minority groups. About 65 percent of older Caucasian Americans get the flu vaccine annually, while only 49 percent of older African-Americans and 52 percent of older Hispanics do. Fifty-eight percent of older Caucasian Americans receive the pneumococcal vaccine, but only 35 percent of older African-Americans and 33 percent of older Hispanics do. This is distressing because African-Americans have the highest risk of pneumococcal disease, Orenstein said. Schaffner said that while a lot of attention has been focused lately on the debate over whether people should be vaccinated against small pox, "We really should pay attention to keeping ourselves as healthy as possible by preventing diseases like influenza and pneumococcal disease that are actively hazardous to our health year in and year out." Always consult your physician to determine if you should receive these vaccinations. Online Resources(Our Organization is not responsible for the content of Internet sites.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Coalition for Adult Immunization |
For more information on influenza, visit the Infectious Diseases information module on this Web site. Flu Vaccine Urged for Elderly, InfantsIt is almost flu season again, and US health officials are urging early vaccination for those most at risk, including the elderly—and for the first time—infants from 6 months to 2 years old. Unlike the last two years, no vaccine shortages are expected, reports United Press International (UPI), which interviewed spokespeople for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the nation's three producers of flu shots—Aventis, Evans, and Wyeth. People at high-risk of the flu include those over age 65, and those with heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease, AIDS, or people undergoing chemotherapy. The government says these people should be vaccinated by the end of October. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some 20,000 Americans die of the flu each year and another 114,000 are hospitalized, UPI reports. Always consult your physician for more information. Want a Flu Shot? Get Some Sleep FirstLack of rest impairs initial immune response to vaccination Vaccines are supposed to help you rest easy, but they may not be so effective in people who get them while sleep-deprived. That is the conclusion of a new study, which found that the flu shot is temporarily slowed if administered in people suffering from chronic loss of sleep. The inoculation does bounce back after several weeks. But during that window, people who got the shot while in sleep debt may be more vulnerable to infection. The study, appearing as a research letter in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), might help explain why the flu vaccine does not take as well in older people, said Eve Van Cauter, a sleep expert at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the letter. "There's very little known about the sleep needs of older adults, whether they need less or achieve less," Van Cauter said. "Certainly the data would suggest that the response to flu vaccine is less robust in the elderly." In a previous study, John Sheridan, an immunologist at Ohio State University and a co-author of the letter, found that the combination of aging and stress greatly suppressed the immune system's response to inoculation. "Sleep deprivation is one of the most stressful things you can do to a mammal," Sheridan said. Since the 1960s, the number of hours the average American sleeps each night has fallen from nine to seven. An estimated 70 million people in this country suffer from some form of sleeping problem, such as insomnia or apnea, according to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For 40 million of those people, the trouble is chronic. The vast majority of these nighttime woes go undiagnosed and untreated. Previous research has shown that immune function wanes as the body amasses a sleep gap. In the new research, Van Cauter's group compared immune response to the flu vaccine in 25 young men. Eleven were allowed only four hours of sleep for six consecutive nights—followed by a week of 12-hour spells to recover—while the others got between 7.5 and 8.5 hours of rest after "paying back" a similar sleep debt. All the men received a flu shot on the morning after the fourth night. Flu shots trigger a surge of blood proteins, or antibodies, that help the immune system recognize and fight the virus. But 10 days after the injections, the men who got the shot while sleep-deprived had less than half the level of antibodies (called a titer) against the pathogen than did those who were better rested when vaccinated, the researchers found. Both groups had similar antibody titers within three to four weeks of being immunized. Still, Van Cauter said, the findings illustrate the importance of getting vaccinated while well rested. That applies to the elderly, as well as to shift workers and other people with strained sleeping habits. Dr. Meir Kryger, a sleep researcher at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, said certain body functions, like the secretion of growth hormone, are known to depend on sleep cycles and phases. So scientists have long wondered if the immune system may be vulnerable to sleep deprivation. As the latest findings suggest, "it looks like that may indeed be the case." Although some evidence indicates that people in chronic sleep debt are more vulnerable to infections, not enough research is available on the subject, he added. Flu vaccines have been bedeviled by delays the last two years, though last year saw only a moderate setback. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projects that 92 million to 97 million doses of the shot will be available this season—or about 10 million more than in the 2001-2002 season. |