Doctors Recommend A New Type Of Flu Vaccine

Doctors Recommend A New Type Of Flu Vaccine.
A vaccine that protects children against four strains of flu may be more striking than the usual three-strain vaccine, a renewed cramming suggests. The four-strain (or so-called "quadrivalent") vaccine is available as a nasal sprinkler or an injection for the first time this flu season. The injected version, however, may be in blunt supply, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study of about 200 children did not measure against the four-strain vaccine to the traditional three-strain vaccine.

Rather, it looked at how kids responded either to the four-strain vaccine or a hepatitis A vaccine, and then compared answer rates for the four-strain flu vaccine to reaction rates for the three-strain vaccine from last year's flu season. "This is the victory large, randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a quadrivalent flu vaccine against influenza in children," said look at co-author Dr Ghassan Dbaibo.

"The results showed that, by preventing middle to severe influenza, vaccination achieved reductions of 61 percent to 77 percent in doctors' visits, hospitalizations, absences from drill and parental absences from work," said Dbaibo, at the sphere of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, in Lebanon. The results authenticate the effectiveness of the vaccine against influenza, and particularly against moderate to tough influenza.

"They also showed an 80 percent reduction in lower respiratory tract infections, which is the most common important outcome of influenza. Therefore, vaccination of children in this age group can help to reduce the significant gravamen placed on parents, doctors and hospitals every flu season. The report was published online Dec 11, 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The look was funded by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the four-strain vaccine hand-me-down in the study. Dr Lisa Grohskopf, a medical constable in CDC's influenza division, said there are several flu vaccine options for children. For children age-old 2 and up, a nasal spray is an option, and for children under 2, the usual injection is available. "The nasal spread vaccine is a quadrivalent vaccine, which has four different flu viruses in it.

That's to wax the likelihood of whatever might be circulating during the season". The flu shot is at with either three or four virus strains. "Since quadrivalent vaccines are new this year, there's not as much of them being produced as trivalent vaccines - for the flu shots - so there may be places where it's harder to get the quadrivalent vaccine".

The four-strain vaccine may outlay a taste more than the trivalent three-strain vaccine, but expense will vary by location. And the vaccine is covered by insurance. According to the CDC, 138 million to 145 million doses of flu vaccine will be obtainable this year. An estimated 30 million to 32 million of these doses will be the four-strain flu vaccine. The indolence will be the three-strain vaccine.

The three-strain vaccine protects against two types of influenza A - H1N1 and H3N2 - and one B strain. The four-strain vaccine adds another B strain. Grohskopf said, because of the temporary fit of the four-strain vaccine, the CDC is not recommending one vaccine over another. "The most consequential article is that kids get a flu vaccine, even if it's the older trivalent one.

Two doses of vaccine are recommended for children 6 months to 2 years of period who are getting vaccinated for the start with time. "They need to get those doses before flu season is really in full swing. The effectiveness of the vaccine depends on how well it is matched to the circulating viruses. And it's still too anciently in the flu condition to tell just how effective either vaccine will be.

For the study, Dbaibo and colleagues assigned 62 children grey 3 to 8 to receive the four-strain vaccine and 148 to pocket a hepatitis A vaccine. They found, among the children exposed to the flu, 16 of those who received the four-strain flu vaccine got sick, compared with 61 of those who got the hepatitis A vaccine. These numbers make known the vaccine was 74 percent remarkable in preventing flu.

In contrast, stay year's flu vaccine, which contained three strains of flu, was 56 percent effective, according to the CDC. In the late study, side effects were similar in both the flu and hepatitis A groups. Serious incidental effects occurred in 1,4 percent of those who received the flu vaccine and in 0,9 percent of those who received the hepatitis A vaccine. The most precarious plane effects were one case of bronchitis and a case of convulsions in the flu vaccine group full article. More communication To learn more about flu, visit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.