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 Thursday.
“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.
Virus highly contagious
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,” said Dr. Margaret Rennels, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
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.