For those of us with kids under 5....

FluMist nasal spray more effective than flu shot in children under age five

05/01/2006

A study being released today at a child-health meeting finds that MedImmune’s nasal spray flu vaccine provides infants and preschoolers with “significantly more protection” from the flu than traditional flu shots, the Associated Press reports. For the study—which was funded by MedImmune and led by a vaccine specialist at St. Louis University—researchers enrolled 8,000 children ages six months to five years during the 2004 flu season to receive both a FluMist nasal spray and a shot, only one of which contained a real flu vaccine. The researchers found that FluMist was 55% more effective than the flu shot, with only 3.9% of children who received FluMist developing the flu, compared with 8.6% of children who received flu shots. However, the researchers did find that some children ages six months to two years developed a temporary “asthma-like wheezing in the weeks after the first FluMist dose.” According to the researchers, the risk of wheezing was “slight,” with only 1% more children developing the condition after receiving FluMist than children receiving flu shots; the researchers say they will continue to analyze whether the risk would “offset the increased flu protection.” In addition, the FDA likely will question whether FluMist should be approved for children under age two; FluMist currently is approved for use in people ages five years and older, and MedImmune is planning to seek approval to market the vaccine for younger children. The study’s lead author concludes that despite the risk of wheezing, any product that “makes it easier and more effective to vaccinate children is going to contribute a lot to the protection against influenza” because children are thought to be the “prime spreaders of flu virus” (Neergaard, AP/Washington Post, 5/1).