- Pediatricians are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible.
- They say this is particularly true since flu cases were down significantly last year, and children may not have built up much immunity to influenza.
- They also note that the recent surge in COVID-19 cases is straining healthcare services that normally would be reserved for children seriously ill with the flu.
Health authorities are urging parents and caregivers to vaccinate their children against influenza amid fears of a “twindemic” of COVID-19 and the flu.
Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement advising that all children ages 6 months and older get vaccinated against flu this fall.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to remember that influenza is also a highly contagious respiratory virus that can cause severe illness and even death in children,” Dr. Flor Munoz, an associate professor of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and the lead author of the policy statement, said in a press release.
“The flu vaccine is safe, effective, and can be given alongside other routine immunizations and the COVID-19 vaccine,” Munoz added.
The AAP guidelines say children can be given the flu vaccination via either an intramuscular injection or a nasal spray.
Dr. Dean A. Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the UC Davis Health in California, said both options are effective at preventing severe illness from influenza.
“The flu vaccine contains certain parts of the flu virus. The immune system reacts to the inactivated virus by forming an immune response, an antibody response, and a cellular immune response so that when challenged with the actual virus, the immune system is primed to fight it off and either totally prevent infection, or if there is breakthrough infection, then it is milder than what would occur otherwise,” he told Healthline.
“The nasal spray works similarly. It’s a weakened form of the influenza virus and sprayed into the nose where the immune system recognizes it and gets primed so that if challenged in the future, it can fight off infection.
“Some people may prefer the nasal spray because it’s not an injection, so there’s advantages to that. On the other hand, some people don’t like the nasal spray because they don’t like things stuck up their nose,” Blumberg said.
Source: healthline