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WHO: H1N1 vaccine safe, only one dose needed
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Thousands of people line up to get the H1N1 vaccine at Metro Hall
in Toronto on Friday Oct. 30, 2009.
Geneva, Switzerland - In a pandemic H1N1 briefing on Friday, the World Health Organization confirmed the safety of the swine flu vaccine for all recipients, including pregnant women and children. In addition, the report stated that adults and adolescents age 10 and older will only need one dose for effectiveness throughout this flu season.
Though the WHO stated more testing was needed to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine on children age 6 months to 10 years, it concluded that it is safe to be administered to them. The briefing urged, “Where national authorities have made children a priority for early vaccination, SAGE recommended that priority be given to the administration of one dose of vaccine to as many children as possible.”
It was also recommended that due to the “elevated risk for a severe outcome in pregnant women,” they should be administered the H1N1 vaccine.
According to the report, which was the result a meeting this week of The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, vaccination for H1N1 and the seasonal flu should not be given together unless “both vaccines are inactivated, or one is inactivated and the other is live attenuated.” A live attenuated vaccine is prepared from live organisms, rather than being inactivated, where the organisms have been killed.
Addressing the recent dialog as to the safety of the H1N1 vaccines, the WHO dismissed the chance of any significant danger. According to Reuters, Marie-Paule Kieny, chief of vaccine research, stated, “All the reports received to date following vaccination -- either in clinical trials or in mass vaccination campaigns -- have shown that the safety profile of these pandemic vaccines is good and is very similar to the one which is known for seasonal influenza vaccine. Nothing special in terms of adverse events has been noted."
At the start of the information release was an assessment of the current status of the pandemic spread and treatment:
“Globally, teenagers and young adults continue to account for the majority of cases, with rates of hospitalization highest in very young children. Between 1% to 10% of patients with clinical illness require hospitalization. Of hospitalized patients, from 10% to 25% require admission to an intensive care unit, and from 2% to 9% have a fatal outcome.
Overall, from 7% to 10% of all hospitalized patients are pregnant women in their second or third trimester of pregnancy. Pregnant women are ten times more likely to need care in an intensive care unit when compared with the general population.”
As stated on its website, the World Health Organization is “the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.”
Copyright © 2009 by Raymond Gellner
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