Results tagged “influenza” from Vaccination News

Children given a flu vaccine by nasal spray were better protected against the disease than those given the old shot in the arm, according to new research in the most recent New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, which followed nearly 8,500 children in 16 countries, found the vaccine sniffed up the nose reduced the influenza "attack rate" in children by 55 percent compared to the traditional injections.

The attack rate is the number of people who get sick compared to the total number of people in a study group.

"Children get the flu twice as often as adults," said Dr. Robert Belshe of St. Louis University, the study's lead author. "It's important to vaccinate kids against influenza -- and to identify new and more effective flu vaccine options -- because kids have a higher attack rate for influenza infection than adults."

Once again there's an evidence that there was too much of flu vaccine available in US this season. What's going to happen to the surplus? It will be destroyed. Do the Big Pharma companies care? Not at all, the vaccine shots were already paid by the state. Who paid for destroyed vaccine? Correct, the taxpayers. 

By David Singleton, The Times Tribune

The good news, health officials say, is plenty of flu vaccine is available for anyone who hasn’t yet received a shot.

The downside is that probably won’t change even after flu season is over.

Amid a nationwide surplus of flu vaccine, health care providers in Northeastern Pennsylvania and across the state expect tens of thousands of doses to go unused.

Britain will not be following the lead of America and vaccinating children against flu, it was reported today.

Government advisers have concluded there is not enough evidence that vaccination is effective in children, according to Pulse magazine.

Countries like the USA are rolling out flu vaccination to help limit the impact of a bird flu epidemic should it happen. The vaccines do not protect against the H5N1 bird flu strain but scientists are concerned about the dangers of an epidemic of the two kinds of flu at the same time.

Greg Ciola Interviews Mary Tocco

When was the last time you heard an honest debate on the flu shot where experts from both conventional and alternative medicine were allowed to present their facts and debate the issues? There are plenty of independent researchers not beholden to the drug companies that have a wealth of interesting information to share that if disseminated widely, would cause many to stop and think twice before getting jabbed with a flu shot. The one good thing we’ve hopefully learned is to get a second opinion before making any major medical decision. Getting a flu shot is a major medical decision.

Crusador editor, Greg Ciola, is pleased to interview vaccine researcher Marry Tocco about the dangers of the flu shot. Before succumbing to fear thinking that you’ll die or become horribly sick if you don’t get a flu shot, listen to what Mary Tocco has to say first, pray about it, and decide for yourself whether you should take a shot after weighing all the facts.

Although health authorities have provided free flu vaccinations for targeted groups and repeatedly urged the public to get the shots, many respondents to a recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) survey think that such vaccination is unnecessary.

Fifty-six percent of respondents who did not receive the vaccination said that the flu is only a "minor illness" and that there is no need to get a flu shot.

Commenting on the results, CDC Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said the public should not think lightly of the threat of flu, which can lead to serious complications and, in some cases, death.

Shih said risk of death from complications rises with age.

source - Taipei Times 

Let's see, Sanofi invests  €160 million last year, then produces 170 million influenza shots this year. The price of a single shot varies between $10 and $15 (according to CDC). Gross profit would make $1.7 billion, at least. 800% ROI? Not bad.  What was the key factor of this outcome? A fear. Consumers' fear.

Don't forget that some pharma companies were doubling the price (Some Suppliers Jack Up Flu Vaccine Price, The Washington Post, Oct.14, 2006). And now there's a huge surplus of influenza vaccines stocked in clinics. Will we see another warning about some new virus, dangerous and deadly, for sure?

Sanofi pasteur, the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group (NYSE: SNY; EURONEXT: SAN), announced that it completed production of more than 170 million doses of influenza vaccine in 2006. Sanofi pasteur confirmed its leadership as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of seasonal influenza vaccine, supplying a very significant portion of the estimated global production of about 350 million doses.

As the global influenza vaccine leader, Sanofi pasteur has been steadily increasing its manufacturing capacity. Since 2003, capacity has increased by more than 40% in line with the company’s commitment to serve a central role in the fight against a disease that causes between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 300,000 and 500,000 estimated deaths every year around the world according to the Word Health Organization. In addition, sanofi pasteur’s leadership position in developing and producing influenza vaccines places the company at the forefront of readiness against the threat of pandemic influenza. The company is committed to producing as many doses of sanofi pasteur’s most advanced vaccine in the shortest possible timeframe, should a pandemic be declared by the world’s health authorities.

2006 was a very big year when it came to health news. New drug approvals, new vaccines, health scares that never quite made it and health scares that keep coming back for more. They were all part of the big year in health news in 2006.

2006 could easily be named the year of the vaccine. Several new shots hit the market: the first shingles vaccine, a whooping cough, or pertussis vaccine, for adults and a new, safer rotavirus vaccine to prevent the common diarrheal illness in children.

The biggest news, perhaps, surrounded the cervical cancer vaccine. It's approved for pre-teen girls to prevent HPV--human papilloma virus--the sexually transmitted virus that triggers cervical cancer.

Health technician Hamit Öztürk has been paralyzed due to thenflu vaccine. Öztürk stayed at the hospital for 15 days. He was saved by cleansing of his blood from antigens. Öztürk got the flu shot in the corporate office of the government doctor of the ministry of health on November 21.

Then his health started to get worse. It was thought that he had muscle aches in an examination in Ankara Numune Hospital. Then he could not move any of his organs, even his eyelids. It was detected that Öztürk's nervous and immunity system broke down due to the side effect observed in 1 per thousand with the flu vaccination.

source - Sabah.com 

by John W. Whitehead, Rutherford.com

The flu season is here once again. During the last flu season, doctors reportedly wrote more prescriptions for the drug Tamiflu than any other flu treatment. But after recent reports about the Food and Drug Administration’s reluctance to issue a warning about certain possible dangers of using Tamiflu, one has to wonder which is more dangerous—the flu or the FDA?

First approved by the FDA in 1999, Tamiflu was touted as a drug that could significantly reduce the length and severity of influenza. These claims even prompted the U.S. government to purchase 20 million doses of Tamiflu—at a cost of $2 billion—in the event that a bird flu pandemic occurred. The Pentagon followed, paying a whopping $58 million in July 2005 for treatments of U.S. troops around the world.  

As expected, now it appears that there's too much of influenza vaccine shots. Surprise? Not really. Despite mass media attacks on the consumer to push these rather useless shots and secure profits of pharma corporations, the customers are not in a hurry to get an injection against flu. Who knows, maybe we are a bit less ignorant and more resistant to panic news than it was expected. 

HAWAII - This year you won't see long lines at makeshift vaccination clinics.  What you will see at health insurer HMSA are vials and vials of unused flu vaccine.

"It appears that the demand based on the estimates that everyone provided to us just didn't arrive," said Sr. Vice President Cliff Cisco.

The past two years, demand exceeded supply so much that the shortage left some going without a shot. So everyone, doctors and health insurance companies, increased their orders.

If you believe that you definately need an influenza vaccine, if you think that you can be protected by taking this shot, please read the article A Shot of Fear. It's worth every second of the time you will spend reading it.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Influenza vaccination for pregnant women expecting to deliver during influenza season does not seem to reduce the occurrence of respiratory illness in their newborn infant, new research suggests.

Influenza vaccination is currently recommended for children between 6 and 23 months of age. Vaccination in younger children has proven unsuccessful because the vaccine does not stimulate much of an immune response at that age, according to the report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

One solution to provide protection to these young infants might be to vaccinate the mother in hopes that protective antibodies would be passed to the developing baby while still in the womb. Whether this strategy actually helps prevent respiratory disease in the child is unclear.

RUSSIA, December 1 (Itar-Tass) - Prosecutors in Russia's Stavropol territory opened a criminal case over the facts of allergic complications in children who have been inoculated against the flu.

Medical assistance has been rendered in the region to more than 70 children since the beginning of mass vaccination. Of those, 32 children were hospitalized with edemata, rash, palpitation and tachypnea, a regional prosecutor told.

In several cases reported in the regional center, the allergic reaction proved so severe that the children had to be taken to an intensive therapy ward.

This is the first time someone admits that there's too much flu shots manufactured. If you choose to believe everything that media, CDC and administration tell you, then I let you read the article. However, if you believe that too much manufactured vaccine shots means only one thing - mass pressure from media, doctors, administration to make sure that all this vaccine is used (i.e. paid by administrations or the customers, which means that the pharma giants will have their profits secured), then you can skip the article. It's up to you.

Two years ago, a manufacturing glitch led to shortages of flu vaccine in the United States, prompting long lines - and occasionally angry customers - at the few flu-shot clinics that were able to go off as scheduled.

This year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there's potential for a problem of a different sort - too many doses of the vaccine.

"It is quite a turnaround from 2004," said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. "And I think the concerns on the part of the CDC are legitimate."

Baxter has been contracted by the Austrian government to supply 16m doses of pre-pandemic influenza vaccine - enough to vaccinate the country's entire population.

Pandemic influenza occurs when a new virus emerges that is easily transmitted among humans and causes serious illness, which can result in a worldwide outbreak of disease, or pandemic.

Avian influenza, or bird flu, does not normally infect humans, but there have been several examples in the last few years of transmission to people, leading to fears of a strain with the potential to lead to a pandemic.

Federal Service on Consumer Rights Supervision has withdrawn six series of Grippol flu vaccine. Roughly a million doses are being recalled from circulation on 68 cases of strong allergic response in nine regions of Russia. In two regions, the authorities independently stopped vaccination. The loss of vaccine producer, federal-run Microgen, is estimated at $2 million.

Chief of Federal Service on Consumer Rights Supervision (Rospotrebnadzor), Gennady Onishchenko, announced yesterday the withdrawal of six series of Grippol vaccine on strong allergic response to the preparation. Sixty eight people in nine regions of Russia suffered from it as of yesterday. All victims had laryngeal edema, palpitation and breathing troubles.

Stavropol, Nov. 15 (Interfax) - Three schoolchildren were taken to the intensive care of the city hospital with the most serious allergic reaction - Quincke's edema – after vaccination against influenza.

Three boys aged 7, 10, and 11 were taken to hospital from three different schools. The patients were taken to hospital immediately after the vaccination. At the same time, doctors say "it is too early to state the schoolchildren had such a reaction on the vaccine yet". A hospital spokesperson also said that two of the injured were moved to the pediatric department after a course of treatment and gastric lavage. The 11-year-old schoolboy remains in the intensive care. A commission of Russian Consumer Rights' Protection and People's Health experts visited the hospital after the incident.

Children are being vaccinated with Grippol as part of a large-scale national project "Health Service" in Stavropol Region now. According to the presidential program, children going to kindergartens and primary schools, doctors, teachers and people older 60 are vaccinated free. Meanwhile, local media report there were cases when parents refused to have their children vaccinated with unknown substance to them.

source - NewsLab