Swine flu fading away only to return this fall--WHO

Though it is not yet sure when the third wave of the virus will hit the nation, health officials fear it will happen.

In a statement, Marita Mike, health director at the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, said, "It wouldn't be surprising to see another peak this year. When you look at flu outbreaks in the past, there were multiple peaks."

Vaccinate kids to protect community from swine flu
One of the ways to stop the spread of the virus is to give flu shots to children, suggests a latest study by researchers.

According to the scientists at Canadian universities and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, vaccinating kids against the HINI influenza can protect the whole community.

"Children are heavily involved in (flu) transmission. If you prevent disease in children, then you're going to prevent infection in older individuals,” Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor said.

In order to conduct their study, the researchers studied the children in 46 Hutterite colonies in western Canada.

They divided the colonies in two groups. One group was given shots against hepatitis A and the other group was vaccinated against swine flu.

The communities were closely followed for a year--2008 to 2009.

It was found that the children vaccinated against HINI virus reduced the risk of influenza by 60 percent in their communities.

Extending protection to the entire community by vaccinating only a selected portion of the population is known as ‘herd immunity.’

Importance of herd immunity
The researchers believe that the swine flu vaccine should focus on creating herd immunity. The creation of herd immunity is important especially in case of contagious diseases, and crowded environments like schools, where it is easy to spread the virus.

When a large part of the population is immune, it is difficult to maintain a chain of infection, thus curbing the spread of virus.

The experts have believed in this phenomenon but had never tried it until now.