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ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, yesterday came forth with a long anticipated recommendation that just about all Americans over the age of 6 months should receive a yearly flu vaccination.
Maggie Fox, science and health editor for Reuters, brings us the details in her story.
UPDATE 1-Everyone in US should get flu vaccine - experts
Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:44am GMT
(Updates with vote on flu vaccine)
* 97 million H1N1 vaccines administered in U.S.
* Deaths could exceed normal seasonal flu year
* Obese and children at highest risk
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Everyone in the United States over the age of six months should get seasonal influenza vaccines every year, federal vaccine advisers said on Wednesday.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices made the long-awaited vote to recommend virtually universal flu vaccination -- something public health experts have long recommended.
"The new recommendation seeks to remove barriers to influenza immunization and signals the importance of preventing influenza across the entire population," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
Earlier, experts told the committee that people who were morbidly obese and school-aged children were much more likely to become seriously ill or to die from H1N1 swine flu, as opposed to seasonal flu, which mostly kills the frail elderly.
Two additional points are brought out in this article.
First, Maggie reports that H3N2 is on the rise in China, accounting now for about 6% of their influenza cases. This suggests that reports of seasonal flu’s demise may yet be premature.
Second is that the pandemic death toll in the United States – now estimated at near 17,000 – may be revised upward over the coming months and may exceed the 36,000 deaths we `expect’ from an average flu season.
(36K deaths is the CDC’s yearly estimate of flu deaths. Not a count)
While many have been quick to latch onto early numbers and jump to conclusions regarding the impact and severity of this pandemic, the simple truth is that it will take months – likely years – before we can analyze most of the data.
Until then, pronouncements regarding this pandemic need to be viewed as preliminary at best.
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