Newswise — Current policies recommend universal flu vaccination for children aged 6 to 23 months, while vaccinations for older children are recommended only if they have high-risk medical conditions. But recent biosurveillance data indicate that preschoolers drive flu epidemics, suggesting that vaccinating them could help prevent overall influenza-related deaths.
Investigators John Brownstein, PhD, and Kenneth Mandl, MD, MPH, of Children's Hospital Boston used data from a system called AEGIS (Automated Epidemiologic Geotemporal Integrated Surveillance), which performs automated, real-time monitoring of disease outbreaks, and from the National Bioterrorism Syndromic Surveillance Demonstration Project. The data showed that 3- and 4-year-olds are the first to present with flu symptoms. Moreover, flu-like illness in children under age 5, compared with all other age groups, was the most predictive of pneumonia and influenza deaths in the general population.
Brownstein and Mandl are available to discuss their findings. They note that preschools and daycare centers are hotbeds of infection, so it is not surprising that 3- and 4-year-olds are at the leading edge of flu epidemics. Mandl suggests that in a flu pandemic, authorities may want to target not just high-risk individuals, but those who are spreading flu to everyone else.
For more information on John Brownstein, PhD:http://www.chip.org/profile.cgi?id=ch112666
For more information on Kenneth Mandl, MD:http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site108/mainpageS108P0.html
For more on AEGIS:http://www.chip.org/research/index.htm
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