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Researchers suggest a new formula for vaccination
by Neka Sehgal - August 21, 2009 - comments
A new research suggests that the priority for immunization should be to inoculate the spreaders of the virus and not those at risk
New Carolina, August: 20 A new research refutes the popularly held policy by America’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC) that those eligible for the first shots of flu vaccine should be children between the age of six months and 19, pregnant women and those with underlying health issues at the risk of facing severe complications from an influenza.
According to Clemson University mathematician Jan Medlock and colleague Alison Galvani of the Yale University School of Medicine, the best way to protect the general public would be to vaccinate the transmitters of the virus rather than those at highest risk for complications.
The researchers suggest that even when armed with a limited supply of vaccine, a valid alternative to halt infections and fatalities would be to immunize school children and parents.
“You can stop the transmission chain very effectively by vaccinating the school children. The big difference is that we found it optimal to exclude people under 5. There’s not a significant amount of transmission among them,” said Medlock.
Flu pandemic data reviewed
With a view to minimize the spread of the virus, Medlock and her colleagues developed a mathematical model to decipher how flu is transmitted and to figure the best strategies for immunization among the varied age groups.
The researchers took into account age, transmission and other relevant factors. They studied mortality data from the United States by reviewing flu pandemics from 1918 and 1957.
Parents and school children active transmitters of virus
The normal procedure is that children transmit the flu to their parents who in turn aggravate the situation by spreading the flu to the rest of the population.
The researchers found that flu viruses are easily spread among school children and their parents, who are at the moment at the bottom of the vaccination priority list.
Hence the best method to curb the spread of influenza is to inoculate young people and their parents, not infants and the elderly.
"Stopping the transmission in schools would then keep the kids from bringing it home to their parents, and keep their parents from giving it to co-workers, grandparents, whatever," added Galvani.
According to researchers in normal years about 85m doses of vaccine are distributed in the nation, but if the policy suggested by them is followed the dose might be drop to just over 60m. Hence the strategy was not only more efficient but also cheaper.
Dr. Pascal James Imperato director of public health program at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City also endorsed the assessment made by the researchers that schoolchildren are often responsible for the transmission of influenza.
However, he added, "Annual age group-specific recommendations concerning vaccination against influenza need to be made on the basis of the history of the predominant strains of virus circulating.
"As a result, these recommendations may vary from year to year and cannot be based on a statistical outcomes model that does not incorporate this and other very significant variables."
This study is published in Science Express, August 20, 2009.