Influenza immunisation in children: good for everyone or reserve for the chosen few?

Paediatric Respiratory Reviews
Jeff Williams, Patricia Goodwin

Abstract

Influenza infection leads to significant morbidity in children. There is a lack of sound epidemiological data to define precisely the true burden, severity and rate of complications in otherwise normal children. Effective and safe vaccines are available with the prospect of an intranasally administered live attenuated vaccine being licensed in the near future. There are few contraindications to immunisation and, for children who will benefit from the procedure, short courses of oral corticosteroids and confirmed allergy to egg can no longer be regarded as such. The uptake of immunisation in the UK and other countries in categories of children defined and targeted by the Department of Health is currently low. A number of challenges remain. Firstly, to define more precisely which children will most benefit from immunisation and, secondly, to gather much more persuasive evidence if routine immunisation of healthy children is to be contemplated. Once these strands of evidence have been pulled together we need a clear evidence-based protocol which will reassure doctors and parents of the importance, efficacy and safety of influenza immunisation in whichever group of children have been identified as appropriate recipients.

References

Dec 1, 1977·The Journal of Infectious Diseases·C W BiermanJ P Fox
Oct 1, 1991·Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health·M J FersonP W Robertson
Feb 1, 1991·The American Review of Respiratory Disease·L A LaitinenJ A Nadel
May 1, 1990·American Journal of Diseases of Children·W C GruberR B Couch
Mar 1, 1986·The Journal of Infectious Diseases·R B CouchW A Keitel
Jun 1, 1985·The Journal of Pediatrics·K R Murphy, R C Strunk
Jun 1, 1983·The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology·J R MillerE O Meltzer
Sep 1, 1982·American Journal of Public Health·J P Mullooly, W H Barker
Sep 1, 1982·Archives of Disease in Childhood·R P Ford, B Taylor
May 16, 1998·Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology : Official Publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology·E K ChungL M Bell
Dec 17, 1998·The New England Journal of Medicine·T LaskyR T Chen
Dec 18, 1998·Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine·M P FairchokE R Carter
Jan 28, 1999·The New England Journal of Medicine·T HeikkinenT Chonmaitree
Jan 29, 2000·The New England Journal of Medicine·K M NeuzilM R Griffin
Jan 29, 2000·The New England Journal of Medicine·H S IzurietaK Fukuda
May 18, 2000·Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·K L O'BrienS F Dowell
Nov 22, 2000·Archives of Disease in Childhood·M GonzalezH Picolet
Nov 29, 2002·Pediatrics·UNKNOWN Committee on Infectious Diseases. American Academy of Pediatrics

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Jun 2, 2005·The British Journal of Sociology·Michael Burawoy
Sep 7, 2005·European Journal of Cancer : Official Journal for European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [and] European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)·J ChisholmM Zambon
Aug 3, 2007·Expert Review of Vaccines·Sofia Kalaboka, Isabella Annesi-Maesano

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Allergy and Asthma

Allergy and asthma are inflammatory disorders that are triggered by the activation of an allergen-specific regulatory t cell. These t cells become activated when allergens are recognized by allergen-presenting cells. Here is the latest research on allergy and asthma.