Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Flu vaccine may be less effective this winter

Flu vaccine may be less effective this winter
FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2014 file photo, a sign lets customers know they can get a flu shot in a Walgreen store in Indianapolis. The flu vaccine may not be very effective this winter, according to U.S. health officials who worry this may lead to more serious illnesses and deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory to doctors about the situation Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File) (The Associated Press) 
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - The flu vaccine may not be very effective this winter, according to U.S. health officials who worry this may lead to more serious illnesses and deaths.

Flu season has begun to ramp up, and officials say the vaccine does not protect well against the dominant strain seen most commonly so far this year. That strain tends to cause more deaths and hospitalizations, especially in the elderly.

"Though we cannot predict what will happen the rest of this flu season, it's possible we may have a season that's more severe than most," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a news conference Thursday.

CDC officials think the vaccine should provide some protection and still are urging people to get vaccinated. But it probably won't be as good as if the vaccine strain was a match.

Flu vaccine effectiveness tends to vary from year to year. Last winter, flu vaccine was 50 to 55 percent effective overall, which experts consider relatively good.

The CDC issued an advisory to doctors about the situation Wednesday evening.

CDC officials said doctors should be on the look-out for patients who may be at higher risk for flu complications, including children younger than 2, adults 65 and older, and people with asthma, heart disease, weakened immune systems or certain other chronic conditions.

Such patients should be seen promptly, and perhaps treated immediately with antiviral medications, the CDC advised. If a patient is very sick or at high risk, a doctor shouldn't wait for a positive flu test result to prescribe the drugs - especially this year, CDC officials said.

The medicines are most effective if taken within two days of the onset of symptoms. They won't immediately cure the illness, but can lessen its severity and shorten suffering by about a day, Frieden said.

He was echoed by Dr. Richard Zimmerman, a University of Pittsburgh flu vaccine researcher. Some doctors may hesitate, reasoning that flu season usually doesn't hit hard until around February. But it appears to have arrived in many parts of the country already and "it's time to use them," Zimmerman said.

Among infectious diseases, flu is considered one of the nation's leading killers. On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Nearly 150 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed for this winter's flu season.

Current flu vaccines are built to protect against three or four different kinds of flu virus, depending on the product. The ingredients are selected very early in the year, based on predictions of what strains will circulate the following winter.

The ingredients always include a Type A H3N2 flu virus. The most severe flu seasons tend to be dominated by some version of that kind of flu bug. The three most deadly flu seasons of the last 10 years - in the winters of 2003-2004, 2007-2008, and 2012-2013 - were H3N2 seasons.

In March, after the H3N2 vaccine strain was vaccine production was underway, health officials noted the appearance new and different strain of H3N2. "This is not something that's been around before," Frieden said.

But health officials weren't sure if the new strain would become a significant problem in the United States this winter until recently, they said. Lab specimens from patients have shown that the most commonly seen flu bug so far is the new strain of H3N2. Specifically, about 48 percent of the H3N2 samples seen so far were well matched to what's in the vaccine, but 52 percent were not, the CDC said.

An official with one vaccine manufacturer - GlaxoSmithKline - emphasized that about half the samples do match the strain in the vaccine. He also noted flu seasons can sometimes involve a second wave of illnesses caused by a different strain.

"We're at the very beginning of flu season, and it's quite possible different strains will predominate," said Dr. Leonard Friedland, director of scientific affairs for GSK's vaccines business.

Thursday's news follows another problem recently identified by CDC officials, involving the nasal spray version of flu vaccine.

At a scientific meeting at the CDC in October, vaccine experts were told of preliminary results from three studies that found AstraZeneca's FluMist nasal spray had little or no effect in children against the swine flu strain that was the most common bug making people sick last winter.

Because this year's version of FluMist is the same formulation, experts said it's possible the spray vaccine won't work for swine flu this season, either.

However, CDC officials believe H3N2 will be the most common flu bug this winter.

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Online:

CDC flu Web page: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/index.htm 

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For a different perspective on vaccines:

National Vaccine Information Center

Barbara Loe Fisher  keynote presentation at the 2014 US Health Freedom Congress in Minneapolis MN

3 comments:

  1. I'm currently under the weather with a bad cold, so I thought I would do a little research on vaccines. I had some time to watch the keynote presentation by Barbara Loe Fisher at the end of the article. I learned many disturbing things. My personal thoughts are that our bodies get sick because our immune systems are weakened. The symptoms of colds and flu are our bodies way of dealing with viruses. It's a pain but if you let the your body's natural healing process work, you can recover from many illnesses.

    Vaccines, the "flu shot" introduce foreign matter into your body with the stated goal to protect your health as well as the financial health of the medical industrial complex. To make matters worse, there is case law where local boards of health can quarantine people and force people to be immunized:

    U.S. Supreme Court
    JACOBSON v. COM. OF MASSACHUSETTS, 197 U.S. 11 (1905)
    197 U.S. 11

    HENNING JACOBSON, Plff. in Err.,
    v.
    COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
    No. 70.

    Argued December 6, 1904.
    Decided February 20, 1905.

    [197 U.S. 11, 12] This case involves the validity, under the Constitution of the United States, of certain provisions in the statutes of Massachusetts relating to vaccination.

    The Revised Laws of that commonwealth, chap. 75, 137, provide that 'the board of health of a city or town, if, in its opinion, it is necessary for the public health or safety, shall require and enforce the vaccination and revaccination of all the inhabitants thereof, and shall provide them with the means of free vaccination. Whoever, being over twenty-one years of age and not under guardianship, refuses or neglects to comply with such requirement shall forfeit $5.'

    An exception is made in favor of 'children who present a certificate, signed by a registered physician, that they are unfit subjects for vaccination.' 139.

    Proceeding under the above statutes, the board of health of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 27th day of February, 1902, adopted the following regulation: 'Whereas, smallpox has been prevalent to some extent in the city of Cambridge, and still continues to increase; and whereas, it is necessary for the speedy extermination of the disease that all persons not protected by vaccination should be vaccinated; and whereas, in the opinion of the board, the public health and safety require the vaccination or revaccination of all the inhabitants of Cambridge; be it ordered, that [197 U.S. 11, 13] all the inhabitants habitants of the city who have not been successfully vaccinated since March 1st, 1897, be vaccinated or revaccinated.'

    Subsequently, the board adopted an additional regulation empowering a named physician to enforce the vaccination of persons as directed by the board at its special meeting of February 27th.

    *********************************************************************************************************************************
    This case law is still in effect in Massachusetts and other states as well. Just something to think about on this wintry day. Need more kleenex!

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  2. I forgot to add the link to the case law from 1905

    Jacobson v Massachusetts

    Enjoy!

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  3. There are many issues that when researched seem to differ from the official statement. One such health issue is AIDS. Many of us may remember the dentist David J Acer and the events in Florida that led to several deaths. What many don't know was how the documentary The Strecker Memorandum may have been part of that story. You will be glad you spent the time watching this video. StreckerMemorandum Question all you have been told.

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