What’s the rationale for the Elderly NOT being Primary Recipients of the H1N1 Flu Shot?
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First — it was Children who were the Primaries.
Now — it’s everyone up to Age 49(??)
My Grandmother is 86, yet she cannot get the Vaccine…
In past years — The Elderly were Primaries, because they would have a tougher time fighting the Virus, right ?
MQ2 — Is their a Link that explains this ?
thank you.
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Tagged with: grandmother • primaries • virus
Filed under: Elderly Care
Exposure to the virus in their youth makes their resistence sufficient to put them in a lower category. The seasonal flu shot and the pnuemonia vaccine are still called for.
Try CDC.gov for a more complete explanation; they now reccommend the shot if there is local supply. All the high risk that want the shot have gotten it.
Try the county health department.
This flu for some reason attacks a younger group of people 25-35 yr range and pregnant women. Of course anyone with underlying problems can get a flu shot from their doctor…there is plenty of vaccine available.
The swine flu isn’t new….It was around in the 1950s, and so they say that anyone born before 1957 or so probably has built up an immunity toward the swine flu, as they have already been exposed.
So chances are, if they are exposed to the swine flu now, they will have the immunity to fight it off.
Not guaranteed they won’t get it, but it seems less dangerous for them.
the elderley ie your grandmother are one of the last categories to be vaccinated unless she has a chronic dsease ie- one of the following asthma diabetes,copd, immunosuppressed. Children were only primaries if they also had one of the disease listed above my daughter had it as she has asthm but my son was not elegible as he didnt have a chronic illness,
The reason is….There was a similar virus one year ( I don’t remember the year) way back. They are assumed/guessed by the CDC to have a probable immunity to the current strain so if one is older than 49 then the CDC is classifying them as second tier.
The answer is "heterosubtypic immunity." What that means is that each time a person is exposed to any type of flu, it triggers an immune response to it – this happens even if the person does not actually get sick, because it’s also possible to be exposed and to fight it off.
People who are quite old have had many exposures over decades and decades of living, so that they are likely to already be carrying antibodies to the H1 and N1 subtypes. Those who are younger have not had exposure, so they have very little immunity. People who have been vaccinated by injection (flu shots) have immunity only temporarily, and only for the specific subtype that’s going around.
Shots wear off in a matter of months, which is why you would have to take one every year. And sometimes, the particular subtype chosen for production turns out to be the wrong one, then the population at large gets vaccinated against a disease that never arrives, yet ends up highly vulnerable to the one that spread instead.
Those who have been vaccinated every year against every version of seasonal flu are the most vulnerable to a sudden development of a novel subtype – so in this case, young children whose parents vaccinate every year are the most at risk. The children who have never been vaccinated are more like the old people because their immune systems have been challenged so they are less likely to have a serious case of H1N1 or any other flu.
I do not vaccinate my children for any type of flu.
H1N1 vaccination is now open to everyone, and Dept of Health and Human Services is actively encouraging anyone who wants protection to get vaccinated.
When the vaccine was first available there were of course scarcities requiring rationing the vaccine to the highest-risk groups.
Senior citizens (or persons aged 65 years and more) are less likely to get infected or ill from H1N1. The majority of serious illness, complications and deaths in connection with H1N1 has occurred in persons under the age of 65. This pattern has been documented across several sources.
As regards a link, you might visit the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine and People 65 Years and Older (updated 21 December)
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/vaccine_seniors.htm
This age pattern with H1N1 has been well documented in the Southern hemisphere during its flu season. You can consult the World Health Organization web site for international surveillance on H1N1.
The reasons for apparent immunity among persons born before 1957 may trace to their exposure to a version of the H1N1 virus that circulated in 1947-57 time frame. Persons born in that period appear to have developed some resistance to H1N1.
If you need other web references, you might also search for the "H1N1 Influenza Internet Resource Guide."