Policymakers, parents and hospitals need to get a better understanding of the resources families have in terms of regular flu vaccines and how those vaccines might be distributed over the course of the year, so that they can help families make decisions based on risk, not on fears, experts said.
Effective vaccination reduces the flu mortality rate and the frequency with which those people die. Last year, for example, the influenza mortality rate was approximately 8.7 people per 100,000 during the peak influenza season, compared to 27 people per 100,000 in the baseline season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The result: approximately 100,000 fewer deaths over the course of a flu season.
Last week, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union voted to make flu vaccines against the H1N1 virus and in combination with the narcolepsy vaccine, narcolepsy vaccine, or injectable flu vaccines— all made by MedImmune — mandatory for all children born between 2003 and 2006. (This is not a decision made by pediatricians who issue vaccination recommendations to families.)
The most compelling evidence for the mandating of flu vaccinations came from the study of highly enriched flu vaccine doses in the 1980s. These doses were served in the European Union to all adults, regardless of age. The results showed that at the time of study, when this intensive regimen was standard and only vaccinated children participated, the transmission rate of Influenza A and Influenza B was below zero. Later studies confirmed that there was a transmission advantage to receiving the high-intensity vaccine.
There are only about 60 percent of available doses of the high-intensity vaccine every year. This knowledge was important to the European Parliament as a critical point of reference. But the current method of using the highest effective dose of the high-intensity vaccine to be served per year may be too short term to reach the population, according to Dr. Kostadin Kushlev, chief of the Health, Food and Occupational Safety Section at the Commission. In other words, more vaccines are needed to be circulated over a larger period of time.
The European Union’s so-called COAR guidelines make it clear that seasonal influenza immunization is a key component of a healthy person’s health and that the various levels of vaccination in the European Union have a variety of cost and potential risk factors. COAR establishes the relative value of the various types of vaccines, so that it can take into account local costs, risks and opportunities.
COAR estimates that 95 percent of seasonal influenza is already vaccinated, based on the average price of the various versions, depending on their use in different countries. While it isn’t clear how widespread, the COAR estimates that approximately 5 percent of the population in a year needs to be vaccinated at least once, in order to prevent serious or chronic illness or death from influenza.
The move to make Covid-19, or a combination of FluAdel and E5MI/VO5A-II, the pandemic vaccine in its most recent recommendation process demonstrates the importance of scheduling large-scale vaccination campaigns to achieve maximum effectiveness. If large-scale vaccination campaigns are an option, it is important to have information regarding whether each individual patient has other available risk factors, when a particular vaccine is due for vaccination and whether there are other vaccines available. This information should be posted in a way that’s easy to use by families and healthcare providers.
In deciding the best approach to vaccination decisions, doctors often focus on which will give the best immune response, like the high-intensity flu vaccine, instead of considering all the available information. But in our efforts to make Tamiflu and other drugs available to the community, we often focused on the best potential benefits. To make those drugs available, we should also take into account the potential benefits of a broader vaccination schedule.
Covid-19 is the first active influenza vaccine directed against H1N1 that provides an extra layer of protection against H1N1, should the H1N1 flu virus reappear. And because the model is of the highest efficacy, it can be administered to an additional 100 million people over three seasons, if the scenario happens that a pandemic would appear.
Still, there are possibilities for the increased reach of the health system, because there is a huge unmet need and huge numbers of people who can benefit from this additional protection.