H1N1. Get your shots.

[PeterB]

H1N1 ( swine 'flu ) is back and its more vicious than ever.
As with last year the fatalities show a different pattern to normal seasonal 'flu. Seasonal 'flu is more serious in older people. With H1N1 its younger people, particularly children who are at risk.
The death rate in the UK is rising and comprises mostly young people. Two men died at my wife's hospital yesterday..both in their forties.
In addition to the tragedy of people dying from an easily preventable illness there is the issue of Intensive Care beds.
As with last years outbreak a large proportion of the UK's IC beds are currently occupied by sufferers from this preventable condition.
Most will recover, But the cost in terms of resources is huge. As is the toll on the staff.

Get your shots/jabs folks.

[lojong1]

Is it true that if a parent of mine was flu-vaccinated prior to my birth, I am 88% more likely to be killed by swine flu?

[PeterB]

No its nonsense. In fact quite the reverse. Your parents would not have encountered H1N1. Viruses constantly mutate and H1N1 did not exist, they would however have encountered viruses that are related...which confers a degree of immunity to them, but not to you. The reason that many younger people are reacting to H1N1 so strongly is that they have NOT encountered it and so have no immunity. Older people will have during the major flu epidemics of the 50's and 60's aquired partial immunity. Back then 'flu shots had not been developed.
There is a whole lot of urban myth making going on among the medical luddite population.

[lojong1]

It's reasonable to assume it's nonsense, but have studies been done to show what is actually happening? No one I know has ever been asked by their doctor for info about parents' vaccination history--not with H1N1 nor with any other seemingly unrelated ailment--I suppose because doctors are sure there could be no connection. What is this certainty based on?

[PeterB]

Lojong I dont know where you live but here in the UK all medication is regulated by a particular body called the National Institute For Clinical Excellence..the difference between it and for example any American body is that all treatment in the UK is free at the point of contact..in other words there is no financial incentive to prescribe any given treatment , quite the reverse in fact due to budget constraints. They subjected the H1N1 vaccine to prolonged testing. They also had the advantage that H1N1 hit Australia before it hit Europe and so the Australian data was available..they found that the risk of an adverse reaction to the vaccine was in the ratio of one to several million, whereas fatalities from H1N1 was one to several thousand...So make up your own mind.

[Mawkish1983]

Have you heard the latest brilliant idea from the UK [non-elected] government? They want people to be vaccinated against the seasonal influenza virus with last year's left over vaccines (to save money, perhaps?). Thing is, I'm fairly sure the virus mutates at a rate that would make last year's vaccine pretty useless against this year's influenza. I'm not trained in medicine though, so all I have to go off is heresay and conjecture.

Edit: Just read it back. "Fairly sure" based on "heresay and conjecture". Funny stuff Mawkish. Well done.

[PeterB]

I agree Mawkish. A very dodgy proposal. A bodged response to insufficient planning.

[lojong1]

...So make up your own mind.

The numbers there do look good...
Motive aside, did any of that prolonged testing and worldwide study show: that adverse reactions to vaccines are no more likely if the parents were vaccinated?; or that H1N1 fatality is no more likely if parents were vaccinated (any vaccine, not just H1N1)?
Where can I find cross-generational vaccine research?

[PeterB]

I doubt that there is much data lojong because the flu shot is relatively recent and the virus changes. I'll ask my wife. She knows about that sort of thing.