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 able than the usual three-strain vaccine, a original scan suggests. The four-strain (or so-called "quadrivalent") vaccine is available as a nasal sprinkle or an injection for the first time this flu season. The injected version, however, may be in dwarfish supply, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study of about 200 children did not refer 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 effect rates for the four-strain flu vaccine to rejoinder rates for the three-strain vaccine from last year's flu season. "This is the in the first place large, randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a quadrivalent flu vaccine against influenza in children," said cramming co-author Dr Ghassan Dbaibo.

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

"They also showed an 80 percent reduction in lower respiratory tract infections, which is the most common poker-faced outcome of influenza. Therefore, vaccination of children in this age group can help to reduce the significant saddle with 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 studio was funded by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the four-strain vaccine cast-off in the study. Dr Lisa Grohskopf, a medical peace officer in CDC's influenza division, said there are several flu vaccine options for children. For children ancient 2 and up, a nasal spray is an option, and for children under 2, the usual injection is available. "The nasal sprig vaccine is a quadrivalent vaccine, which has four different flu viruses in it.

That's to enlargement the likelihood of whatever might be circulating during the season". The flu shot is within reach 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 payment a picayune more than the trivalent three-strain vaccine, but expenditure 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 close by this year. An estimated 30 million to 32 million of these doses will be the four-strain flu vaccine. The recess 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 direct reserve of the four-strain vaccine, the CDC is not recommending one vaccine over another. "The most notable whatchamacallit 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 duration who are getting vaccinated for the initial 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 beforehand in the flu time to tell just how effective either vaccine will be.

For the study, Dbaibo and colleagues assigned 62 children superannuated 3 to 8 to receive the four-strain vaccine and 148 to admit 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 show the vaccine was 74 percent efficacious 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 restored study, side effects were similar in both the flu and hepatitis A groups. Serious cause 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 honest interest effects were one case of bronchitis and a case of convulsions in the flu vaccine group more help. More word To learn more about flu, visit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.