No Evidence Flu Jabs Work for Under-2s - Study

[Roman Bystrianyk]

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&id=640

Patricia Reaney, "No Evidence Flu Jabs Work for Under-2s - Study",
Reuters, February 25, 2005,
Link:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=J3ZSWIF5HKHZECRBAE0CF FA?type=healthNews&storyID=7740134

There is no evidence that vaccinating children under 2 years old
against influenza reduces deaths or complications from the illness,
researchers said on Friday.

They reviewed 25 studies that looked at the impact of vaccines in
cutting the number of cases of influenza and its symptoms in children
up to 16.

Children under 2 are vaccinated against flu in the United States and
Canada.

"Immunization of very young children is not lent support by our
findings," said Dr Tom Jefferson, of the Cochrane Vaccines Field in
Rome, part of the international Cochrane Collaboration that evaluates
medical research.

"We recorded no convincing evidence that vaccines can reduce mortality,
admissions, serious complications and community transmission of
influenza," he added in a report in The Lancet medical journal.

Influenza vaccine campaigns are usually targeted at people over 65.

U.S. and Canadian health officials have recommended that children aged
6-23 months should also be immunized.

Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines,
saying healthy babies under 2 should be routinely immunized against the
virus. It followed recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.

Each year, influenza kills an average of 36,000 Americans and puts
114,000 in hospital.

"In young children below the age of 2, we could find no evidence that
the vaccine was different from a placebo," Jefferson told Reuters.

He added that the findings do not mean vaccinations do not work in
young children but they found no evidence that it does. There was no
indication the vaccines caused any harm or reason to believe they were
unsafe.

The findings are part of a bigger Cochrane Review expected to be
released later this year.

[Jenrose]

"Roman Bystrianyk" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&id=640
>
> Patricia Reaney, "No Evidence Flu Jabs Work for Under-2s - Study",
> Reuters, February 25, 2005,
> Link:
> http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=J3ZSWIF5HKHZECRBAE0CF FA?type=healthNews&storyID=7740134
>
> There is no evidence that vaccinating children under 2 years old
> against influenza reduces deaths or complications from the illness,
> researchers said on Friday.
>

And they also recently decided that it doesn't reduce death from flu in over
65's either.

So who exactly DOES this flu shot benefit, anyway?

Jenrose

[Emily]

Jenrose wrote:
>
> And they also recently decided that it doesn't reduce death from flu in over
> 65's either.
>
> So who exactly DOES this flu shot benefit, anyway?

I'd like to see a study that looks a reduction in over
all flu and flu-like symptoms. Maybe the flu shot helps
folks who aren't at risk for bad complications be less
miserable. But, that does seem unlikely if it's not
reducing any deaths...

Emily

[[email protected]]

Jenrose wrote:

> And they also recently decided that it doesn't reduce death from flu
in over
> 65's either.
>
> So who exactly DOES this flu shot benefit, anyway?

Well, I'm unlikely to die of the flu (28 years old, relative good
health, no immune deficiencies, etc.), but I've gotten a flu shot in
the past for several reasons:

1) I was working with someone who had had a transplant, whose immune
system was compromised, and I didn't want to be responsible for
carrying the flu to her and exposing her to something that would kill
her.

2) I worked with the public (in an institution for kids with mental
retardation and behavioral disorders, in a public school, in a staffing
agency) where I was likely to come into contact with someone carrying
the flu.

3) While getting the flu shot doesn't necessarily prevent you from
getting the flu entirely, it can make what would've been a 1-2 week
episode of the flu into a 1-2 day episode, instead, which is tough to
prove (because you can't both get and not get the flu shot and then
expose yourself to the flu and see what happens) but is generally
thought to be the effect for most people who are not really young or
really old or immune compromised who get the flu shot.

I'll take 2 days of missed work over 8 days any day.

Amy

[john]

"Jenrose" > wrote in message
>
> So who exactly DOES this flu shot benefit, anyway?

"This practice could generate up to £3,700 from an effective annual
influenza vaccination campaign if it immunised 10% of the practice."--Pulse
article http://www.whale.to/v/quotes3.html

"In the course of a vaccination trial that took place in France on October
1st, 1981, Professor Mercie, former director of the glamorous Pasteur
Institute, was asked why the Institute kept producing and selling its
anti-'flu vaccine despite its recognized worthlessness. Professor Mercie's
candid reply: 'Because it helps financing the Institute's research'." -
(Hans Ruesch, Naked Empress p81)

"Well they've a tremendous job of brainwashing the basic public to believing
that this is absolutely necessary every fall when the season comes around
you got to go and get your flu shot.
You see you have a captive audience. Imagine the benefit to an
industry that can produce a product and know approximately how many they are
going to sell with insured money because not only can they sell it but they
know it's going to get paid for because it's going to be paid for by
insurance companies or Medicaid. And so the benefit for the manufacturer is
tremendous. He say OK I am going to make 20,000,000 shots and I'm going to
make $3 a shot or $5 on each shot and them I'm going to buy some interest in
these clinics that in themselves are going to make money in running tests
afterwards and of course after each flu shot you know onslaught and people
get pneumonia and things like that so their hospital shares are going to go
up we are going to sell more of this anti-biotic, I mean you can calculate
all that very callously"---Snead

[Circe]

"Jenrose" > wrote in message
news:1109453751.6a972935b82e7cf6d7e5926d1a0d933d@t eranews...
> And they also recently decided that it doesn't reduce death from flu in
over
> 65's either.
>
> So who exactly DOES this flu shot benefit, anyway?
>
<Shrug> I think my oldest son and I escaped the flu altogether this year
because we were vaccinated. Lots of folks we know have had a respiratory
illness with high fever that sure as heck looks like the flu. My husband was
so sick, he stayed home from work for two days, which is something he hasn't
done in at least a decade. My daughter got it, too, but a less severe case
(lucky for her).

If anyone was going to get it, I should have. I didn't. Having seen how sick
my husband was, I'm very, very grateful.
--
Be well, Barbara
Mom to Mr. Congeniality (7), the Diva (5) and the Race Car Fanatic (almost
3)

I have PMS and ESP...I'm the bitch who knows everything! (T-shirt slogan)

[Anne Rogers]

> <Shrug> I think my oldest son and I escaped the flu altogether this year
> because we were vaccinated. Lots of folks we know have had a respiratory
> illness with high fever that sure as heck looks like the flu. My husband
> was
> so sick, he stayed home from work for two days, which is something he
> hasn't
> done in at least a decade. My daughter got it, too, but a less severe case
> (lucky for her).

last year I might have agreed, but after my recent experience it could just
be luck, both Nathanael and DH have 2 horrible colds since we have been in
Korea, the first had DH of work for 3 days, very unusual for him, the 2nd
they both have terrible coughs still, I've not been effected by either,
which is very unusual for me.

Anne

[Jeff]

"Circe" > wrote in message
news:%hJUd.82089$Yu.80374@fed1read01...
> "Jenrose" > wrote in message
> news:1109453751.6a972935b82e7cf6d7e5926d1a0d933d@t eranews...
>> And they also recently decided that it doesn't reduce death from flu in
> over
>> 65's either.
>>
>> So who exactly DOES this flu shot benefit, anyway?
>>
> <Shrug> I think my oldest son and I escaped the flu altogether this year
> because we were vaccinated.

Of course, had you not gotton the flu shot, you might not have gotton ill,
anyway. There is no way to be sure.

However, studies do show that people who get the shot are far less likely
to get the flu, and if they do get the flu, it is most likely to be much
less severe.

> Lots of folks we know have had a respiratory
> illness with high fever that sure as heck looks like the flu.

But it could have been something else.

> My husband was
> so sick, he stayed home from work for two days, which is something he
> hasn't
> done in at least a decade. My daughter got it, too, but a less severe case
> (lucky for her).
>
> If anyone was going to get it, I should have. I didn't. Having seen how
> sick
> my husband was, I'm very, very grateful.

I am not suggesting that people should not get the flu shot. In fact, I
think the flu shot saves thousands of lives a year (and this is backed by
data from t he CDC). However, in this particular case, this is anecdote.

While there is no way to tell for sure that the flu shot helped you, the
data clearly show that flu shots save lives every year.

Jeff

> --
> Be well, Barbara
> Mom to Mr. Congeniality (7), the Diva (5) and the Race Car Fanatic (almost
> 3)
>
> I have PMS and ESP...I'm the bitch who knows everything! (T-shirt slogan)
>
>