Flu Season Looms: Vaccine is Now Recommended for Most Children

Mike Ferrara

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 650

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

This flu season, the federal government is recommending flu vaccines for all children aged 6 months to 18 years. Previously, vaccines were recommended only to children under age 5, who are particularly vulnerable to influenza. The change has come about as a result of a Harvard University study that suggests that children are among the top flu-spreaders in the nation.

Over the past four years, Harvard researchers took census data for all of the adults admitted to Boston emergency rooms with flu symptoms. They discovered that people who lived in the zip codes most densely populated with children were the most likely to come down with the flu. Moreover, flu symptoms appeared both first and with the most ferocity in the areas where the most children lived. The link between children and the flu was so pronounced, in fact, that every one percent increase in child population translated to a four percent increase in emergency room flu visits by adults.

Children are at a particular risk for spreading the flu partly because they are generally less adept at keeping coughs and sneezes to themselves. And since they have so much close contact with one another in schools and day care centers, their daily routines offer ample opportunity for viruses to proliferate.

Because the Harvard study did not even look at people who experienced flu symptoms but did not go to the emergency room for care, the full impact of children on a population during flu season is likely to be much greater than even these worrying results show. Parents are strongly encouraged to make sure that their school-age children are vaccinated before flu season strikes. To locate clinics in your area that offer flu shots, please visit the American Lung Association’s Flu Clinic Locator.