The flu virus is easily spread through the winter months
Giving your child the unverisal influenza vaccination may reduce infections by up to 95 per cent in the general population.
The projected reduction is attributed to the prevention of flu in children and the consequent disruption of transmission to the rest of the population.
This translates to an average annual reduction of approximately 52,000 GP visits, 1,500 hospitalisations and 1,200 deaths attributable to flu annually in England and Wales. The study was sponsored by MedImmune, a company owned by AstraZeneca.
Seasonal flu is an important public health problem. The 2010/11 flu season recorded over 15,000 critical bed days due to suspected or confirmed flu since the previous flu season in England alone.
Children are one of the age groups hardest hit by seasonal influenza and are also key transmitters of the virus to other age groups, including the elderly who are at the highest risk of complications.
But the UK policy does not recommend universal child vaccination, unlike other countries like the US. Our policy only covers those with certain medical conditions and aged 65 years and older.
The lead study author Dr Richard Pitman, Senior Health Economist from the Health Economics team at Oxford Outcomes, an ICON company said: “As an age group, children play a key role in transmitting the virus due to frequent contact between both one another and between children and adults.
"Children are also more infectious than adults and shed the virus for a longer period of time. The study simulates the impact of seasonal influenza vaccination programmes in pre-school and school-aged children and provides a more holistic picture of the impact that this vaccination strategy could have on rates of influenza disease in children and among the broader population. We believe that the routine vaccination of children in the UK could play an important role in helping to reduce the significant burden of influenza.”
Tagged in Parenting children's health