Dozytoes
19-09-09, 11:58 PM
This may be a blessing for them!
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26094782-601,00.html
Children must wait for swine flu vaccine
Natasha Bita | September 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/)
SWINE flu is killing children at twice the rate of seasonal flu, but under-10s will have to wait at least two months for the vaccine that is soon to be offered to every Australian adult in the nation's biggest immunisation scheme.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday announced that the first swine flu jabs would be given to adults from September 30. Health workers, indigenous people, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma, cancer, HIV, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney failure and obesity would be given priority.
The medical watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, has ruled that a single dose of the CSL vaccine for the H1N1 virus is safe and effective in preventing swine flu infections among adults.
But a vaccine for children will not be available until at least November. Clinical trials are now being carried out on 400 children nationally.
The director of Clinical Research at the National Centre for Immunisation, Research and Surveillance, Robert Booy, yesterday said 10 children younger than 15 had died of swine flu in the four months since the virus started sweeping Australia.
Seasonal flu typically killed five or six children in an entire year, he said. "(The death rate) is about twice what we normally see," Professor Booy told The Weekend Australian yesterday.
"We've had a lot of young people -- many, many more than what we normally see -- who could have died apart from superb intensive care.
"It's a young people's flu. And it's not just babies and toddlers," he said.
Statistics compiled by the federal Department of Health and Ageing reveal that swine flu is hitting the young and healthy, and largely sparing the over-60s who have some immunity from previous flu pandemics.
Swine flu patients are at least twice as likely as seasonal flu sufferers to wind up in hospital.
And of the 111 cases of children hospitalised with severe complications from swine flu, 61 per cent had no underlying medical conditions, according to the Australian Pediatric Surveillance Unit.
Children younger than five are three times more likely to end up in hospital with swine flu than members of the general population.
In Queensland, the highest rate of hospitalisation for swine flu (81 cases per 100,000 people) is in the under-four age group, compared with 15 per 100,000 for the over-80s.
And in NSW, children make up a third of swine flu patients in hospital.
National figures confirm the very youngest children are bearing the brunt of the swine flu outbreak. Boys under five have the highest age-specific rates of hospitalisation, with 45.7 per 100,000 population being admitted. That compares with 35.4 girls per 100,000, a figure only slightly higher than the rate of admissions for under-fives seen in normal flu seasons at about 34.
The hospitalisation rate for children aged 5 to 9 is also much higher than normal, at 17 per 100,000 for boys and 12 for girls -- over double the usual rate for this age group, of just over 5.
Swine flu is also leading to a marked increase in hospitalisation rates for women aged 15-34 compared with normal flu years -- in part reflecting the vulnerability of pregnant women -- and for men and women aged 50-60, both statistical humps that are not normally observed. Professor Booy predicted a new surge of swine flu cases in February, once holidaymakers had returned from the northern hemisphere winter and children were back at school for a few weeks.
"It takes three weeks to build the bonfire," he said.
Professor Booy said the results of clinical trials of the vaccine on children were "very encouraging" and data was likely to be given to the TGA in October.
"I think the government will recommend all children be vaccinated," he said.
Additional reporting: Siobhain Ryan
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26094782-601,00.html
Children must wait for swine flu vaccine
Natasha Bita | September 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/)
SWINE flu is killing children at twice the rate of seasonal flu, but under-10s will have to wait at least two months for the vaccine that is soon to be offered to every Australian adult in the nation's biggest immunisation scheme.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday announced that the first swine flu jabs would be given to adults from September 30. Health workers, indigenous people, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma, cancer, HIV, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney failure and obesity would be given priority.
The medical watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, has ruled that a single dose of the CSL vaccine for the H1N1 virus is safe and effective in preventing swine flu infections among adults.
But a vaccine for children will not be available until at least November. Clinical trials are now being carried out on 400 children nationally.
The director of Clinical Research at the National Centre for Immunisation, Research and Surveillance, Robert Booy, yesterday said 10 children younger than 15 had died of swine flu in the four months since the virus started sweeping Australia.
Seasonal flu typically killed five or six children in an entire year, he said. "(The death rate) is about twice what we normally see," Professor Booy told The Weekend Australian yesterday.
"We've had a lot of young people -- many, many more than what we normally see -- who could have died apart from superb intensive care.
"It's a young people's flu. And it's not just babies and toddlers," he said.
Statistics compiled by the federal Department of Health and Ageing reveal that swine flu is hitting the young and healthy, and largely sparing the over-60s who have some immunity from previous flu pandemics.
Swine flu patients are at least twice as likely as seasonal flu sufferers to wind up in hospital.
And of the 111 cases of children hospitalised with severe complications from swine flu, 61 per cent had no underlying medical conditions, according to the Australian Pediatric Surveillance Unit.
Children younger than five are three times more likely to end up in hospital with swine flu than members of the general population.
In Queensland, the highest rate of hospitalisation for swine flu (81 cases per 100,000 people) is in the under-four age group, compared with 15 per 100,000 for the over-80s.
And in NSW, children make up a third of swine flu patients in hospital.
National figures confirm the very youngest children are bearing the brunt of the swine flu outbreak. Boys under five have the highest age-specific rates of hospitalisation, with 45.7 per 100,000 population being admitted. That compares with 35.4 girls per 100,000, a figure only slightly higher than the rate of admissions for under-fives seen in normal flu seasons at about 34.
The hospitalisation rate for children aged 5 to 9 is also much higher than normal, at 17 per 100,000 for boys and 12 for girls -- over double the usual rate for this age group, of just over 5.
Swine flu is also leading to a marked increase in hospitalisation rates for women aged 15-34 compared with normal flu years -- in part reflecting the vulnerability of pregnant women -- and for men and women aged 50-60, both statistical humps that are not normally observed. Professor Booy predicted a new surge of swine flu cases in February, once holidaymakers had returned from the northern hemisphere winter and children were back at school for a few weeks.
"It takes three weeks to build the bonfire," he said.
Professor Booy said the results of clinical trials of the vaccine on children were "very encouraging" and data was likely to be given to the TGA in October.
"I think the government will recommend all children be vaccinated," he said.
Additional reporting: Siobhain Ryan