# 3359
It’s not a new idea. In fact, it was proposed as a measure to reduce the burden of seasonal flu a couple of years ago.
The idea is simple. Kids are very efficient spreaders of flu.
They congregate in schools, share viruses, and then bring them home to their parents, grandparents, and siblings. Adults in the household, particularly elderly family members, are put at higher risk of infection than normal.
Nearly a year ago, in a blog entitled UK Study: Benefits Of Vaccinating Children Against Influenza, I discussed a study by the UK’s HPA (Health Protection Agency) which suggests that seasonal flu could be almost wiped out by simply vaccinating children.
From that article, a snippet of a news item that appeared in The Telegraph.
Vaccinating all children under 16 could cut flu cases 'by up to 97 per cent'
Flu could be virtually wiped out if all under 16s were vaccinated against the disease, a new report suggests.
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 4:00PM BST 04 Aug 2008
Giving every baby and schoolchild in England and Wales the jab could reduce cases of the main strains of the disease by up to 97 per cent, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) estimates.
This idea was not immediately embraced by the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), with them calling for more studies.
There are problems, however.
The backlash against additional vaccinations for kids has grown over the past decade – particularly in the UK.
There are many who subscribe to the idea that autism is caused by the addition of thimerosal, which contains 50% mercury, as a preservative in some vaccines.
While no causal link has ever been established, and most scientific studies have rejected those claims, the fear persists in many parents.
From a public relations standpoint, the idea of vaccinating children with a newly formulated pandemic vaccine becomes an even harder sell.
Even though vaccine technologies have improved over the past 3 decades, memories of the Swine Flu vaccine debacle of 1976 remain strong.
Still, with limited supplies of pandemic vaccine likely to be available, and children seemingly not only at high risk of infection but of complications as well, targeting children may prove to be the most effective use of a vaccine.
This from Reuters.
Vaccinate kids to control H1N1 flu - researchers
Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:25am EDT
* Best use of limited vaccine supplies - researchers
* Children at greatest risk of exposure to H1N1 virus
LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - Targeting children for vaccination may be the best way of using limited supplies of vaccine to control the current H1N1 flu pandemic, British researchers said on Thursday.
Drugmakers are racing to make a vaccine against the new flu strain but if the disease increases significantly in the northern hemisphere autumn, as many experts fear, there are unlikely to be enough shots to vaccinate entire populations.
Researchers from the University of Warwick said that vaccinating children rather than adults would not only help protect a group at greatest risk of exposure to the virus, but would also offer protection to unvaccinated adults.
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