Published: September 25, 2008 03:10 am      

Flu shots for children up to age 18 recommended

In attempt to stem tide of virus during upcoming season

FAIRMONT — Health officials hope raising the recommended age for children to get flu shots will help stem the tide of the virus during the upcoming season.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov), has raised the recommended age for flu shots to children from the age of 6 months to 18 years old. Previously, the age recommendation had been 6 months to 5 years old.

“A school setting is probably the most common place for transmission of influenza virus from person to person,” said Jeff Neccuzi, director of the immunization program for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health in Charleston.

“Several children and personnel are in fairly close quarters for several hours each day, and then they take the influenza virus home to younger siblings as well as other household contacts, some of whom are at high risk for severe influenza complications.”

Getting enough additional doses of vaccine to cover the added ages does not concern health officials, Neccuzi noted. Last year, a record-breaking number of flu shots were manufactured — about 113 million doses in the United States — and this year, a projected 130 million to 145 million will be made.

Last year, some flu shots went unused, and health officials fear that manufacturers will make less if that continues to happen.

“We want to assure that the vaccine is used in that we actually intervene and stop or slow down the transmission of the flu virus. By doing so, we get the added benefit of giving manufacturers more incentive and more reason to produce that amount of flu vaccine and increase our surge capacity, our ability to produce more and more doses of vaccine each year,” Neccuzi said.

Doing so not only theoretically will slow the spread of influenza, but also could help manufacturers get up to speed so that if a pandemic hits, enough vaccine could be produced to inoculate everyone in the country.

“If we build the capacity to produce more doses, then the more prepared we are for a pandemic,” Neccuzi said. “In a pandemic, we are going to need to produce a dose of flu vaccine or two for virtually the entire population except those who cannot take it for medical reasons.”

That would be children under the age of 6 months as well as people who have certain allergies, including to eggs, which are used as the incubator in which the flu vaccine is developed.

Last year, flu vaccines arrived late at the Bureau for Public Health and therefore did not get out to the county health departments until mid-November, although private providers had them in October. This year, officials expect to get them sooner.

So far, the Bureau already has 22,000 of an expected 96,000 doses, of which 16,000 are for the Vaccines for Children Program, Neccuzi said. About 19,500 of the 96,000 doses are for adults and the rest are for children, Neccuzi said. Last year, 18,000 of 78,000 doses went unused, which officials believe was due at least in part to the late arrival of the doses.

Neccuzi hopes to get the rest of his shipment soon and to begin sending them out to county health departments and other public health facilities next week.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll have it sooner than last year,” Neccuzi said.

In a given year, according to the CDC, 5 percent to 20 percent of the population get the flu. More than 200,000 are hospitalized, and about 36,000 die from flu.

Last year’s flu vaccine was not a good match to all the strains of flu that emerged. The CDC estimated that last year’s flu vaccine was 40 percent ineffective, which led to a particularly bad flu season.

“That happens every few years,” said Cyndee Kiger, director of nursing for the Marion County Health Department. “Looking at the statistics, this year should be a good match.”

Kiger will begin scheduling flu shot clinics once she has the doses in hand. This year, she expects to get 500 doses for adults, compared to last year’s 700.

Vaccines for children are free and cost $20 for adults, although the health department bills Medicare for recipients who get shots.

In addition to children, people ages 50 and older also should get a flu vaccine, as well as caregivers and any other adults with a chronic heart or lung condition or with a suppressed immune system, Kiger said.

Also, CDC recommends that pregnant woman in their second and third trimesters get the flu shot in order to help protect their unborn babies, who cannot be inoculated until they turn 6 months old, Kiger said.

Children ages 6 months to 9 years old need getting the flu vaccine for the first time need two shots, the second one coming 28 days or more after the first dose, Kiger said.

“The first dose prepares the immune system, and the second dose provides the protection they need,” she said. “So they should get the first dose as soon as possible in order to also get the second dose.”

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.