Is one enough?

December 21, 2009  |   Posted in Blog, Chronic Illness   |   0 Comments   Tags: Infectious Diseases, seasonal influenza vaccination, swine flu, vaccination, vaccine

It is indeed inconvenient to get vaccinated. It is even more of a pain to have to do so twice! The current guidelines are for those children 9 or younger to receive two doses of H1N1 vaccine at least 21 days apart. So wouldn’t it be nice if you only had to take your child to the clinic just once?

Today an article from Australia by Terry Nolan and others was published by JAMA. They looked at the immune response in children given big doses of H1N1 in a 2 dose regimen administered 21 days apart. They found that after even one dose of vaccine over ninety percent of children had antibody levels above 1:40. Great news, right? Only need one, right?

Well, yes and no. As the accompanying editorial from Anthony Fiore and Kathleen Neuzil point out there are problems. First the dose was bigger than we usually give in the US. And there isn’t consensus on what a protective antibody level should be with the test Nolan used. And past experience with seasonal flu vaccines indicate that protection really comes from the two doses of vaccine…not just one.

So, what does that mean for Guilford County?
1. We shouldn’t change our strategy of giving two doses of H1N1 to children 9 and younger.
2. But we shouldn’t freak out when our loved ones have only received one vaccine and they have to wait for the second one. There is likely to be some pretty good protection even with one dose.

Remember we will be holding more vaccine clinics for both seasonal and H1N1. Check back to this blog or to guilfordhealth.org for updates.