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Flu vaccine for everyone!
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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted last week to recommend influenza vaccination annually for every American 6 months of age and older and I couldn’t be more pleased. It was a long time coming, but it is the right policy at the right time.
We are learning more all the time about just how deadly influenza can be. It makes chronic conditions worse, causes inflammatory responses that can cause heart attacks (among other serious complications), sets up our patients for bacterial superinfections and has an immense financial impact on our society.
The ACIP has been talking about this for so long. So why now? Well, because….
- All signs point to pandemic H1N1 setting up camp as a seasonal virus. That means our healthy younger adults — a group at increased risk from this virus — will be a primary group for vaccination next year. The H1N1 virus will be part of the regular trivalent seasonal vaccine.
- There were a record number of pediatric influenza deaths this season. True, deaths are usually a much bigger problem in the elderly, but we never know when a virus will come along that behaves differently. This was such a year. Oh, and more good news, a new high-dose vaccine has been approved specifically for use in older Americans and will hopefully reduce the burden of illness in this group.
- The pool of people not recommended for vaccination is shrinking. This year morbid obesity emerged as a new high-risk category and H1N1 infections showed again that pregnant women are at high-risk for influenza complications, including increased likelihood for hospitalization and perhaps even death. From a public health and a personal health standpoint, it is much easier (and more effective) to immunize everyone.
- Concerns about necessary infrastructure for influenza vaccine delivery are dissipating. And I agree wholeheartedly with ACIP Chair Carol Baker’s sentiment that ACIP needs to be proactive, not reactive. Infrastructure will develop based on ACIP recommendations, not vice-versa.
- Our influenza vaccine supply is larger and more stable than ever and administered by many different health care professionals in more locations than ever before.
We know a lot about influenza and we know what protects best — vaccination. And that’s important because of what we don’t know — influenza’s next move.