|
H1N1: How Anxious Should We Be???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are all saddened by the untimely death of Matthew Healey, the young man from Hingham who died from the H1N1 flu in Ohio earlier this week. When a tragedy like this happens to an apparently healthy young person, it can be difficult not to become fearful for our own children.
Death from H1N1 is still a rare event, less likely than dying in a car crash or by lightning strike. Just like you wear your seat belt or stay inside during a thunderstorm, taking precautions is always wise. That is why we strongly recommend careful handwashing and getting the H1N1 flu vaccine when it becomes available.
We expect the H1N1 flu vaccine to be available in November. We are unsure of exactly how many doses we will get and will likely need to prioritize our patients who get the vaccine initially. We expect the CDC and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to provide us guidelines on who we need to vaccinate first. Please realize that these are the rules we have to follow, and that as much as we would like to vaccinate each and every child in our practice right away, everyone will need to be patient. We also will be prescribing Tamiflu according to CDC guidelines. What this means is that most healthy children without underlying conditions will not receive this antiviral drug. This is important for two reasons - first, to keep this drug available for those who truly do need it, and also to hopefully prevent resistance from developing.
Over the month of September, our offices gave close to 2500 seasonal flu vaccines. Unfortunately, the CDC has halted shipment of the rest of seasonal flu vaccine until after the H1N1 vaccine rolls out. This means that it will likely be early November before we have more supply to be able to set up more flu clinics. However, we do expect over 3000 more doses to be coming to our office. Seasonal flu in general does not become significant in New England until December at the earliest (although there have been a few years where it has appeared earlier) so we feel that we will be able to provide the vaccine to the rest of our patients in a very timely fashion. With the exception of this year, we have always thought of early November as our typical time to give the flu vaccine.
H1N1 Flu Vaccine Questions and Answers
- How many doses of H1N1 vaccine will my child need? Specific guidelines have not been released, however early information suggests that children under 10 will need 2 doses and children over 10 will only need one dose.
- Will nasal H1N1 vaccine be available? We are unsure of what we are getting as that the state will be supplying us with vaccine. As we have more information we will give it to you.
- Can my child get the flu vaccine and the H1N1 flu vaccine at the same time? Yes.
- When can my child receive the H1N1 vaccine after getting the seasonal flu vaccine? There is no minimum waiting period to receive H1N1 vaccine after getting seasonal flu vaccine or vice versa. This is based on early information and may change once the clinical guidance for the H1N1 vaccine is released. However, if you receive both the H1N1 and the seasonal flu vaccine in the intranasal form, you must separate them by one month.
- If my child was sick this spring with flu-like symptoms, does he or she need the vaccine?Unless your child had a laboratory test that confirmed H1N1, it is possible that he or she had something else. Even if confirmed, we don't know how much immunity it will provide for the fall. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health(DPH) and CDC recommends H1N1 vaccine for everyone.
We know that the health of your children is always on your mind - it's on our mind as well. We will try to keep you informed and keep you sane through this flu season. Appropriately, we have received a lot of concerned phone calls over the past weeks in regards to flu this year. Please realize that as soon as we have information we feel is valuable to you we will send it through an email as this is our best way of disseminating information quickly. |
