For Diabetics, Flu Shot Is a Must

By Sean Kelley

Even if you take insulin every day (as I do), plunging a needle into your skin never gets comfortable—which is why I try to avoid additional, unnecessary pokes.
Until this year, I’ve always put the flu vaccine in that category.

I don’t get the flu and I seldom get colds. Plus, the few times I’ve had the vaccine I’ve felt miserable, something I have in common with other people who get the flu shot. (Read this before you get the flu shot.)

But avoiding the flu vaccine because I don’t like extra sticks or because I feel bad for a few days may be irresponsible. Diabetics need to get the flu shot, says Dr. Tony Fiore, an epidemiologist and flu expert with the Centers for Disease Control. Read More

Cervical cancer shot not always cost-effective

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- An expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer makes sense for young teens when it comes to cost-effectiveness, but not for women in their 20s, contends a new report.

The vaccine against the HPV virus was licensed in 2006 for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26. Health officials recommend it for girls at age 11 or 12, and some doctors offer it to women in their 20s in "catch-up" vaccination campaigns.

The maker of the Gardasil vaccine, Merck & Co., also wants to market it to women ages 27 to 45, but so far the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has denied that request.

The government-funded study found the HPV vaccine is very cost-effective when given to girls at age 12, but raises questions about the value of pushing for vaccinating adults.

Two researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health did the study, one of the most sophisticated analyses of the issue so far. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Gardasil is given in three doses over six months and costs about $375. It targets the two types of HPV, or human papillomavirus, believed to be responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, and two other types that cause most genital warts. The virus spreads through sex.

Health officials say it's best to give the shots to girls at age 11 or 12, before they begin having sex. Some parents think that age is too young for a vaccination campaign against a sexually transmitted disease.

But that is when the shots make the most economic sense, the researchers found. Continue Reading >>

Survivors of 1918 Flu Pandemic Immune 90 Years Later

(HealthDay News) -- People who lived through the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million worldwide are still producing antibodies to the virus 90 years later, researchers report.

"Most people have a notion that elderly people have very weak immunity or they have lost immunity," said lead researcher Dr. James E. Crowe Jr., a professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University.

"This study shows that extremely elderly people have retained memory of being infected with the 1918 flu, even 90 years later," Crowe said.

This is the first evidence that shows that people developed significant immunity to the 1918 flu virus, Crowe said. "It's important to know that you can develop immunity to such a pandemic virus. That has implications for new pandemic viruses," he said.

The report is published in the Aug. 17 issue of Nature.

For the study, Crowe's team studied antibodies in the blood of 32 people in their 90s and 100s, born during or before 1915. They found that all 32 people had antibodies to the 1918 strain of flu virus. In fact, several of these people were still producing the antibodies to the virus.

In experiments with mice, the researchers found that these antibodies continue to protect the mice from infection with the 1918 flu strain.

The study also shows that people have a "surprising ability" to maintain immunity to things they saw a long time ago, Crowe said.

Whether this long-term immunity is peculiar to the 1918 flu virus isn't known, Crowe said. He believes more work needs to be done understand the full extent of this immune response. "The elderly might be a very good donor source for finding antibodies against viruses," he said.

"This study shows that humans can develop very potent immune responses against dangerous influenza that cause pandemics," Crowe said. "It gives us hope that we can develop vaccines and antibody treatments for any other pandemic viruses that come along," he said.

Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine in New York City, thinks that people who developed this strong immune response may have been infected with a less deadly strain of flu before 1918.

"The implication of this study is the 1918 virus was so powerful that the immunity you had to have in order to survive was so prominent that it lasted for the rest of your life," Siegel said.

However, Siegel noted that some people may have had experience with a similar less deadly flu virus that prepared their immune system to handle the 1918 strain.

"So, those in certain age groups who had seen a related virus had the strongest responses," Siegel said. "Either they died, or they developed a profound immune response," he said.

Siegel expects if there is another flu pandemic, some people will develop a lifelong immunity as they did in 1918.

More information
For more on avian flu, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC Panel Urges Extending Flu Vaccine Coverage for Kids

(HealthDay News) -- U.S. health advisers recommended Wednesday that all children 6 months to 18 years of age receive annual flu shots.

Currently, the recommendation is that children 6 months to 5 years of age get vaccinated.
The recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices would cover an additional 30 million children, making it one of the largest expansions of flu vaccination coverage in U.S. history.

The committee is recommending that the new guidelines take effect no later than the 2009-10 flu season, noting that many doctors have already ordered their vaccine for the 2008-09 season. The panel's recommendations are typically followed by the CDC, which issues vaccination guidelines to doctors and hospitals.

"Each season, many children remain vulnerable to the consequences of not being vaccinated against influenza," U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard H. Carmona said in a prepared statement. "We hope this expanded vaccination recommendation will strongly encourage Americans to get an annual influenza vaccination as soon as vaccine becomes available in their communities. This will help in reducing the number of childhood hospitalizations and deaths from influenza each season."

The flu kills dozens of U.S. children annually, part of the estimated 36,000 Americans who die each year from the disease. So far this season, there have been more than 10 reported deaths of children. During the 2006-07 flu season, 68 children died.

Children tend to come down with the flu at higher rates than adults but usually don't get as sick. Health officials hope that extending vaccine coverage will also benefit adults, making them less likely to be infected by children.

"Influenza is a serious, deadly illness that needs to have a vaccination each and every year," said Richard Kanowitz, president of Families Fighting Flu, who lost a 4-year-old daughter to influenza in 2004.

Kanowitz's group was one of those supporting expanding the age range for flu vaccination.
In 2006, the CDC expanded the recommendation to include children up to 5 years old.

"We want the recommendation expanded, because we hear even to this day people say, 'The recommendation doesn't apply to me. I don't have to get vaccinated.' It's completely the opposite," Kanowitz said. "You need to get vaccinated. The CDC just puts out a recommendation, and the confusion over whether people need to get vaccinated needs to be dispelled by having a clear message -- everyone should get vaccinated. The more people who get vaccinated, the more lives get saved."

This year's flu season has hit many areas of the country hard. Adding to the severity of the flu outbreak, this year's vaccine is not well matched to the current strains of flu most prevalent in the United States.

The virus strain most common in the United States right now is the influenza A H3N2 strain, and it's a strain not included in this year's vaccine. Also, this year's vaccine is not well-matched against influenza type B.

Complicating matters, some of this year's influenza type A virus is showing resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Overall, 8.1 percent of the influenza type A viruses tested by the CDC were resistant to Tamiflu. In past years, less than 1 percent of the viruses have been resistant to the drug.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration selected the influenza strains that will make up the 2008-09 flu vaccine. Following the lead of the World Health Organization, the FDA is including the new flu strains Brisbane/10, a version of the H3N2 flu; a second new Type A strain known as H1N1/Brisbane/59; and a newer Type B/Florida strain.

But according to one expert, even the best planning may not result in a perfect vaccine.
"You have to make a decision about what will be in the vaccine in advance," said Dr. John Treanor, a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. "It takes six to eight months to make the vaccine after you've chosen the strains.

"But the reality is that new strains emerge after that decision is made. So, you could be wrong," Treanor said.

More information
For more on flu vaccine, visit the CDC.