ACIP recommends seasonal flu vaccine for almost everyone
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Vaccination against seasonal flu should now be recommended for almost all Americans, according to a vote made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last week.
The expert panel, which provides recommendations to the CDC, voted 11-0 (with one abstention) to recommend seasonal vaccination for everyone except infants younger than 6 months and people with egg allergies or prior severe reactions to flu vaccine. This adds healthy people between 19 to 49—a group that was hit hard by the H1N1 flu—to the list of recommended vaccine recipients, noted the Feb. 24 Washington Post.
At the same meeting, the committee also added the new high-dose flu shot to the list of vaccination options for patients over 65. They also approved the inclusion of the H1N1 strain in the seasonal vaccine for the 2010-2011 flu season.
The World Health Organization had previously recommended that the strain be included in next year's vaccine. Also last week, an expert committee from that organization announced that it is premature to conclude that the H1N1 epidemic has peaked. They noted that an accurate death toll of the epidemic is difficult to calculate and that the virus still could mutate or mix with another more dangerous strain, Reuters reported on Feb. 23.