Nasal Influenza Vaccine Comeback | God's World News

Nasal Influenza Vaccine Comeback

02/23/2018
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    AP Photo: Amanda Klopfer reacts as she is given a FluMist influenza vaccination in St. Leonard, Maryland.

Doctors can start using a kid-friendly nasal spray flu vaccine again, a federal panel said Wednesday.

Two years ago, the advisory group pulled its recommendation for FluMist vaccine after research found it wasn’t working against swine flu. At that time, that was the kind of influenza that was making most people sick. But the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices voted 12-2 Wednesday to recommend the nasal spray as an option for next winter’s flu season. The decision comes as this year’s flu season was one of the worst in decades.

The panel makes its recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which usually accepts the advice. The CDC then sends its decision along as guidance to doctors, hospitals, and health insurers.

FluMist is made by the pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca. It is the only spray-in-the-nose vaccine on the market. It was first licensed in 2003 and is approved for healthy people ages two to 49. Unlike shots made from a killed virus, FluMist is made from a live but weakened flu virus.

The AstraZeneca product was once considered the best childhood flu vaccine on the market. It accounted for about a third of all child vaccinations. But in 2016, the committee rescinded its recommendation of FluMist. That happened after federal study results showed it provided no protection from the 2009 swine flu strain that made most people sick the previous year. It remained on the market, but for the past two winters federal officials have not been recommending that doctors give it.

AstraZeneca has changed the way it tests and selects strains for the vaccine, says Dr. Raburn Mallory, a company official. But it’s been difficult for researchers to check how well the revised product works. That’s due in part because in the last two years another type of flu—not swine flu—has caused most of each season’s illnesses.

Studies suggest that while FluMist fell down against swine flu, it has been effective against other types of flu.

That makes it better than nothing, panel members say. And FluMist is appealing because it is easier to give to kids who fear needles.

(AP Photo: Amanda Klopfer reacts as she is given a FluMist influenza vaccination in St. Leonard, Maryland.)