The Flu

[jinx]

Influenza vaccination was not associated with a reduced risk of community-acquired pneumonia during flu season.

INTERPRETATION: The effect of influenza vaccination on the risk of pneumonia in elderly people during influenza seasons might be less than previously estimated.

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CONCLUSIONS: The 51% reduction in mortality with vaccination initially observed in patients with pneumonia who did not have influenza was most likely a result of confounding. Previous observational studies may have overestimated mortality benefits of influenza vaccination.

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Are flu shots effective in the elderly?

Recent excess mortality studies were unable to confirm a decline in influenza-related mortality since 1980, even as vaccination coverage increased from 15% to 65%.

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Flu shots do not reduce flu related hospital or doctor office visits in kids under 5.

CONCLUSION: In 2 seasons with suboptimal antigenic match between vaccines and circulating strains, we could not demonstrate VE in preventing influenza-related inpatient/ED or outpatient visits in children younger than 5 years. Further study is needed during years with good vaccine match.

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It's all about the money.

In children and adults the consequences of influenza are mainly absences from school and work, however the risk of complications is greatest in children and people over 65 years old...

It was surprising to find only one study of inactivated vaccine in children under two years, given recent recommendations to vaccinate healthy children from six months old in the USA and Canada. If immunisation in children is to be recommended as public-health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required.

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[TheMercenary]

"might be";"may have"; "Further study is needed";"Influenza vaccines are efficacious in children older than two years but little evidence is available for children under two."

All pretty resonable but inconclusive results to me. It is about risk benefit. If you want to take the risk go for it. But stay home when you are sick. Unfortunately you are actually carrying the infection for 24 - 48 hours before your symptoms appear and are infectious at that point. Hence one major cause it is spread.

Update:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm

[TheMercenary]

My wife and son have the flu, go figure.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/WeeklyFluActivityMap.htm

[glatt]

THE flu, or just the flu?

Hope they feel better soon. Wash your hands a lot.

[TheMercenary]

CDC has antigenically characterized 1,817 seasonal human influenza viruses [1,049 influenza A (H1), 196 influenza A (H3) and 572 influenza B viruses] collected by U.S. laboratories since October 1, 2008, and 233 novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

All 1,049 influenza seasonal A (H1) viruses are related to the influenza A (H1N1) component of the 2008-09 influenza vaccine (A/Brisbane/59/2007). One hundred eighty-eight (96%) of 196 influenza A (H3N2) viruses tested are related to the A (H3N2) vaccine component (A/Brisbane/10/2007) and eight viruses (4%) tested showed reduced titers with antisera produced against A/Brisbane/10/2007.

All 233 novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses are related to the A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) reference virus selected by WHO as a potential candidate for novel influenza A (H1N1) vaccine.

Influenza B viruses currently circulating can be divided into two distinct lineages represented by the B/Yamagata/16/88 and B/Victoria/02/87 viruses. Sixty-eight (12%) of 573 influenza B viruses tested belong to the B/Yamagata lineage and are related to the vaccine strain (B/Florida/04/2006). The remaining 504 (88%) viruses belong to the B/Victoria lineage and are not related to the vaccine strain.

Data on antigenic characterization should be interpreted with caution given that antigenic characterization data is based on hemagglutination inhibition (HI) testing using a panel of reference ferret antisera and results may not correlate with clinical protection against circulating viruses provided by influenza vaccination.

Annual influenza vaccination is expected to provide the best protection against those virus strains that are related to the vaccine strains, but limited to no protection may be expected when the vaccine and circulating virus strains are so different as to be from different lineages, as is seen with the two lineages of influenza B viruses. Antigenic characterization of novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses indicates that these viruses are antigenically and genetically unrelated to seasonal influenza A (H1N1) viruses, suggesting that little to no protection would be expected from vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by glatt

THE flu, or just the flu?

Hope they feel better soon. Wash your hands a lot.

Thanks, we keep a large bottle of purell hand sanitizer on the kitchen counter and clorox wipes at every sink. I have felt achy but so far no real S&S. Probably a strong immunity from years of exposure to stuff at work.

And I boost my zinc intake when people in the family get sick. The placebo effect is quite strong.

[TheMercenary]

Wow. It looks like the majority of flu outbreaks right now are Novel H1N1 (Swine Flu).

Over 99% of all subtyped influenza A viruses being reported to CDC were novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/