HHS HealthBeat (December 11, 2008)

Flu vaccinations and youngsters

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

When a youngster arrives at the hospital with a respiratory infection, it could be the flu – or it could be something else. Doctors naturally have to check. And in one case, so did researchers. They looked at laboratory-confirmed cases of flu in children ages 6 months to 59 months, and examined whether the children had already gotten the vaccinations.

Katherine Eisenberg of the University of Rochester, in New York:

``When we looked back at children who were fully vaccinated, we found that they were less likely to have influenza at those visits than children who were partially vaccinated or who were unvaccinated.’’ (12 seconds)

Eisenberg says getting all the vaccinations can help keep kids healthy.

The study in the journal Pediatrics was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: December, 11 2008