# 4912
CIDRAP news carried two stories last night based two studies that appeared in the journal Vaccine late this week.
From Vaccine, published online Sep 16
Healthy young and middle age adults: what will it take to vaccinate them for influenza?
From Vaccine, published online Sep 15
The first is an update on the relative safety of the H1N1 pandemic vaccine rolled out in October of 2009, as measured by VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System).
When millions of doses of vaccines are administered, some small number of serious adverse reactions are expected. This is true for all medications, including those you can purchase over-the-counter.
All medicines have risks.
Some are known, while others are so rare, we have trouble measuring them. It is always a balancing act - a risk-reward calculation - when deciding to take any drug.
And the same goes for flu vaccines. Serious side effects are exceedingly rare, but not unheard of. No one can promise you that a vaccine is going to be 100% safe.
But on the flip side, we know that somewhere between 12,000 and 18,000 Americans died from the H1N1 flu last year, and most of those were under the age of 65.
Which brings us to this first report by CIDRAP News Editor Robert Roos:
VAERS study finds H1N1 vaccine safety similar to seasonal vaccines'
Robert Roos
News Editor
Sep 17, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – The 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine generated more adverse-event reports than recent seasonal flu vaccines, but this was probably due in part to heavy publicity, and the vaccine's safety profile appears similar to that of seasonal vaccines, according to a new analysis by federal scientists.
The researchers, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), found that serious adverse events (AEs)—particularly Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), anaphylaxis, and death—were rare, at less than two of each per-million people vaccinated, according to their early-release report in Vaccine.
The second story is a news brief, essentially a summation of the the second study’s abstract, on the difficulty in persuading young adults to get a seasonal flu vaccination.
Persuading young adults to get flu shots seen as challenge
Healthy adults aged 19 to 49 years are for the first time this flu season (2010-11) among the groups recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to receive annual influenza vaccination. But, as stated by the authors of a study published in Vaccine, "Recommending universal vaccination is one thing; achieving it is another."
Which reminds me, I need to get over to my local pharmacy this week and get my flu shot.
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