Elisa77 asks if her 4 month old little girl, born prematurely, will be vaccinated.
At this stage, we are not offering vaccine to children under six months and I don't think that situation will change. When your daughter reaches six months of age, please talk to someone at your doctors surgery.
To Lou08 - of course it is a personal choice, but I actually advise that pregnant women should be vaccinated, and so should young children. If you are vaccinated, whilst you are pregnant, you protect yourself and your baby.
We don't give flu vaccine to babies under six months because there is insufficient evidence about the immune responses and studies are complicated because they are having so many other of their vaccines just at that time.
Yes, children can get swelling and some soreness where the injection is given, but the studies from the manufacturers and from our researchers here in the UK, showed very few children got reactions like temperatures. The safety profile in children looks very good.
Hi Dr. I've heard there are two types of Swine Flu jab - the one they currently have is the one which includes the drug which they advise pregnant women not to have. Is this true? and if so, why are we being offered this rather than waiting for the 'safe' dose to become available...
I would happily have celvapan as a vaccine if only PCTs would offer it to pregnant women.
The Department of Health guidelines state quite clearly PCTs should make it available to pregnant women rather than risking them not being vaccinated at all, but so far thats not happening.
How can we persuade our local PCTs to offer us Celvapan please ?
Racheleve1 - to answer your question about how many pregnant women have died from swine flu. Ten pregnant women in this country have died and the World Health Organisation estimates that up to 10% of deaths worldwide are in pregnant women.
I don't have the number of cases in under fives to hand, but they continue to have pretty much the highest hospital admission rates in this country.
You also ask about GBS. In 1976, when there was swine flu in the US, there was an increase in cases of GBS in people who were vaccinated. The increase was about one extra case per hundred thousand vaccinated people. GBS is a pretty rare condition involving paralysis - a bit like polio - but most people make a full recovery. It is thought to be some sort of immune response against, usually, an infection. It can be linked to a food poisoning bug and has also been linked to flu disease, itself. Since the 1976 US problem, there have been many studies trying to see if there is a link with seasonal flu vaccine, including H1N1 virus and it has not been seen.
So far, around 4 million doses of Pandremix (the vaccine being used here) have been used and everybody is looking at very carefully for GBS cases but no increase over background has been found.
JodieGooden and manologirl are both asking about Pandremix and Celvapan.
Pandremix protects almost 100% of individuals after the first dose, whilst Celvapan protects only 70%, and so two doses are needed to get the same impact as Pandremix.
For that reason, we strongly recommend that pregnant women do have Pandremix because you get protected much more quickly at a time when the virus is circulating.
Pandremix has a lower dose of the swine flu antigen (the bit that gives you immunity) than Celvapan and achieves its effects through the adjuvant that is included in the vaccine. I have explained already to ah53 about the adjuvant.
Pandremix does have thiomersal in it to keep the vaccine sterile after the contents have been mixed up. Study after study has shown that there is no harm from thiomersal in childhood vaccines. Moreover, the benefits from the rapid protection from Pandremix need to be taken seriously against unfounded fears, for which there is no evidence base at all.
PCT's do have stocks of Celvapan that were provided for people with serious egg allergies who cannot have Pandremix. In my opinion, Pandremix is the right product because protection is so important whilst the virus is still in our communities.
that was excellent, i think it would be very useful for the webeditor to collate our questions and responses from the Prof and put them on the website for other PW to access.
Huge thanks to Professor Salisbury for his very helpful and informative answers. We hope you are all feeling a lot more reassured about the swine flu issues, and yes, ah53, we were intending to do just that! Web Ed
Replies
No, it is not live; the viruses are inactivated and you can't pass the vaccine viruses on to anyone else.
At this stage, we are not offering vaccine to children under six months and I don't think that situation will change. When your daughter reaches six months of age, please talk to someone at your doctors surgery.
[Modified by: GoldenShades on November 23, 2009 02:20 PM]
If you are vaccinated, whilst you are pregnant, you protect yourself and your baby.
We don't give flu vaccine to babies under six months because there is insufficient evidence about the immune responses and studies are complicated because they are having so many other of their vaccines just at that time.
Yes, children can get swelling and some soreness where the injection is given, but the studies from the manufacturers and from our researchers here in the UK, showed very few children got reactions like temperatures. The safety profile in children looks very good.
I would happily have celvapan as a vaccine if only PCTs would offer it to pregnant women.
The Department of Health guidelines state quite clearly PCTs should make it available to pregnant women rather than risking them not being vaccinated at all, but so far thats not happening.
How can we persuade our local PCTs to offer us Celvapan please ?
Thank you
I don't have the number of cases in under fives to hand, but they continue to have pretty much the highest hospital admission rates in this country.
You also ask about GBS. In 1976, when there was swine flu in the US, there was an increase in cases of GBS in people who were vaccinated. The increase was about one extra case per hundred thousand vaccinated people. GBS is a pretty rare condition involving paralysis - a bit like polio - but most people make a full recovery. It is thought to be some sort of immune response against, usually, an infection. It can be linked to a food poisoning bug and has also been linked to flu disease, itself. Since the 1976 US problem, there have been many studies trying to see if there is a link with seasonal flu vaccine, including H1N1 virus and it has not been seen.
So far, around 4 million doses of Pandremix (the vaccine being used here) have been used and everybody is looking at very carefully for GBS cases but no increase over background has been found.
Pandremix protects almost 100% of individuals after the first dose, whilst Celvapan protects only 70%, and so two doses are needed to get the same impact as Pandremix.
For that reason, we strongly recommend that pregnant women do have Pandremix because you get protected much more quickly at a time when the virus is circulating.
Pandremix has a lower dose of the swine flu antigen (the bit that gives you immunity) than Celvapan and achieves its effects through the adjuvant that is included in the vaccine. I have explained already to ah53 about the adjuvant.
Pandremix does have thiomersal in it to keep the vaccine sterile after the contents have been mixed up. Study after study has shown that there is no harm from thiomersal in childhood vaccines. Moreover, the benefits from the rapid protection from Pandremix need to be taken seriously against unfounded fears, for which there is no evidence base at all.
PCT's do have stocks of Celvapan that were provided for people with serious egg allergies who cannot have Pandremix. In my opinion, Pandremix is the right product because protection is so important whilst the virus is still in our communities.
Regards,
David Salisbuty