Study Show Flu Shot Should Not be Given to Children

children flu vaccinations-seasonal flu vaccine-dutch studyLONDON (AP) — Dutch scientists ignited a controversy Friday by suggesting that children would be better off skipping the seasonal flu vaccine this year — a proposal flatly rejected by other health experts.

Their commentary, based largely on animal studies, was published online Friday in the British medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases. The theory is that children infected with seasonal flu acquire a certain kind of immunity that might protect them against new flu outbreaks like swine flu or bird flu.

In the opinion piece, Guus Rimmelzwaan of Erasmus University and his colleagues suggested that health authorities reevaluate the recommendation by countries like the U.S. and Canada to give all healthy children between 6 months and 5 years old a flu shot. The World Health Organization recommends that healthy children under 2 get a flu shot.

In the 1957 Asian flu pandemic, the Dutch scientists noted that people infected with seasonal flu were less likely to catch the pandemic virus. They also cited data showing the same trend in mice and ferrets, the latter of which are believed to be a good model for flu in humans.

See post on Questioning Childhood Vaccinations

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