According to the latest study, there is little evidence to support the theory that children below the age of 2 benefit from the flu vaccine.
wed 51 studies of flu vaccines involving more than 250,000 healthy children under age 16 were reviewed by the group of scientists led by Dr. Sue Smith from Oxford University in England. The analysis included 17 studies translated from Russian for the first time. So far, patients who had persistent disease like diabetes, people over age 65, and health care workers were the people primarily targeted for flu shots. However, according to some research children under 2 are hospitalized for flu at the same rate as people over age 65. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that between 2003 and 2004 more than 150 kids younger than 18 died from flu complications.
But the results of the review present only a part of the 51 studies on flu vaccinations concentrated on children under 2 years old. Two studies including about 1,000 toddlers showed that flu shots are no more effective at preventing the illness in this age group than placebo shots. According to the co-author Tom Jefferson, M.D., from the Cochrane Collaboration vaccine program, there is no evidence to support the thesis that the vaccines prevent deaths from flu or other severe complications. “They may do so, but there is no evidence at present,” he says.
On the basis of the results of the research, scientists query whether all healthy kids under 2 should be given the flu shot as has been recommended by the CDC since 2004. Dr. Smith says, “National policies for the vaccination of healthy young children are based on very little evidence.”
Scientists suggested a different scenario for kids over the age of 2. More than 15,000 observations from high quality research prove that flu shots prevent the flu in 59% of kids (older than 2 years old) who are given them. A nasal spray vaccine produced from live virus is even better, with a 79-percent effectiveness. In 2004 that spray was approved for kids over the age of 5.
The scientists call for more randomized trials on the effectiveness and safety of inactivated flu vaccine in children under the age of 2, due to the lack of studies on this age group. Dr. Jefferson says, “All this homework should be done before the vaccine is recommended for use in any population, not after.”
