[tri-med] FYI - CDC adds flu to childhood shot list

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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/parenting/04/30/flu.shots.reut/index.html
CDC adds flu to childhood shot list
Friday, April 30, 2004 Posted: 2223 GMT (0623 HKT) 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Add another shot to the list of jabs that babies must 
get by the time they are toddlers -- U.S. health officials now say children 
aged 6 months to 2 years should get an influenza vaccine.

Influenza has been added to the vaccination schedule every U.S. parent of young 
children learns about, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of 
Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that, 
beginning in fall 2004, all children aged 6-23 months, as well as household and 
out-of-home caregivers for such children receive annual influenza vaccine," the 
CDC said in a statement.

The CDC had been moving toward the recommendation even before this past flu 
season's unusually early onset with a particularly nasty species of flu virus 
that killed at least 142 children under the age of 18.

"Influenza is a highly contagious, easily transmitted disease and these new 
recommendations will help prevent hospitalizations and even death among infants 
and children 6 through 23 months of age as well as those who have underlying 
medical conditions, such as asthma," Dr. Margaret Rennels, a professor of 
pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said Thursday.

Short supply
In an average year, influenza kills 36,000 people and puts 115,000 in the 
hospital. Influenza and pneumonia are among the top ten leading causes of death 
for children aged 1 to 4.

Yet only 10 percent to 31 percent of children with asthma -- which puts them at 
high risk from flu -- get vaccinated.

The CDC says 75 percent of U.S. children have received the full schedule of 
shots to protect against polio, mumps, measles, rubella (German measles), 
Haemophilus influenzae B, hepatitis B, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville 
and a board member of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases said he 
hoped the recommendations would encourage doctors and parents to plan ahead for 
next year's flu season.

Last year, vaccine supplies ran short in some areas due to unexpected demand 
but in other years vaccine makers have had to throw out millions of unused 
doses.

"Health care providers are encouraged to order vaccine now and plan pediatric 
influenza immunization programs to ensure their practices are able to 
administer vaccine to patients and their direct contacts," Schaffner said in a 
statement.

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