CDC panel recommends flu shots for all school-age children

In an attempt to mitigate the spread of an influenza pandemic that is now widespread in 49 US states, killing at least 22 children this year, a federal health panel recommended Wednesday that all children, not just those under 5, get an influenza shot every year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday that all children aged 6 months to 18 years should be vaccinated for influenza every year, extending a previous recommendation to immunize children up to 5 years.

Previously, the CDC recommended that flu shots be given to children from 6 months
to 5 years old, along with older children who have asthma, weak immune systems or other illnesses.

Wednesday’s recommendation, which soon will be adopted by the CDC, calls for influenza vaccinations for children between 6 months and 18 years, requiring an estimated 30 million more children to be vaccinated.

"This new recommendation will help parents understand that all children can benefit from vaccination," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Public health officials hope the new recommendation that could take effect as early as the next winter's flu season will prevent the spread of flu from schoolchildren to adults.

"It is a big deal," said flu expert Dr. Roger Baxter, co-director of Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center in Oakland. "It's adding an incredibly large number of people to the recommendations."

Influenza (commonly known as "the flu") is an acute respiratory illness caused by one of the family of influenza viruses. In infants, persons over the age of 65 years, and those with chronic medical conditions, the flu can lead to pneumonia, hospitalization, and even death. Each winter, influenza engulfs 35,000 lives in America, most of them elderly and children, and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized with flu-related complications.

Recently, the World Health Organization expressed their concern about the ongoing bad flu season. WHO said the current influenza season is getting so worse that it can overpower the existing method of treating the infections.

Issuing the warning together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. officials said that in the surging influenza season virus can mutate, thus turning the current vaccines into inefficient methods to stop the infections.

Health experts know that influenza viruses mutate constantly, so they meet throughout the year to monitor the flu seasons and consider how to formulate the vaccine.

Flu vaccines contain the three most common circulating strains, usually two from the Type A family of influenza, and one from Type B. But, the FDA decided this week that three new strains of the virus will be used for next year's vaccine because all three previously used strains have mutated.

Federal health officials recently announced the selection of A-Brisbane/59, A-Brisbane/10, from the Type A family of influenza, and B-Florida, from Type B, for the next season's flu vaccine.