MHSC
Senior Moderator
Inoculate kids first: bird-flu expert
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazet...=066615eb-7658-4ac0-841f-c8730ce1a17d&k=44056
<!-- article tools container end -->
CHARLIE FIDELMAN, Montreal Gazette
Published: Friday, November 17, 2006
Once the bird flu virus strikes, vaccinate children first, a leading epidemiologist suggested yesterday.
Children are excellent transmitters of infection, so it?s useful to protect them first, Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control told an immunology symposium held in Montreal.
Older people have some crossover immunity from previous flu outbreaks, Skowronski said. Of the 40 million people who died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, most were under 40, she noted.
Ditto for victims of the current avian influenza virus, Skowronski said. Of the 153 cases of death reported to the World Health Organization, 94 per cent involved people younger than 40.
It?s crucial health officials reconsider their bird-flu priority strategy now because it will be next to impossible to switch tactics during an outbreak, she warned. ?The idea of children first needs to be discussed as one alternative.?
Of the several influenza strains that routinely infect birds around the world, the deadly H5N1 has health officials deeply concerned that it will mutate, allowing it to jump easily from human to human. That hasn?t happened, but responsible governments are preparing contingency plans for the pandemic that experts say will hit, Skowronski said.
?What could we be doing to try to mitigate the impact?? she asked. ?We?re more prepared today then we ever were yesterday or last year, but we will never be fully prepared.
?A new mutation can arise. We don?t know when that?s going to happen, but the possibility is there.?
The symposium was organized by Immunology Montreal a new scientific group founded by McGill University, INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier and the Universit? de Montr?al.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazet...=066615eb-7658-4ac0-841f-c8730ce1a17d&k=44056
<!-- article tools container end -->
CHARLIE FIDELMAN, Montreal Gazette
Published: Friday, November 17, 2006
Once the bird flu virus strikes, vaccinate children first, a leading epidemiologist suggested yesterday.
Children are excellent transmitters of infection, so it?s useful to protect them first, Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control told an immunology symposium held in Montreal.
Older people have some crossover immunity from previous flu outbreaks, Skowronski said. Of the 40 million people who died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, most were under 40, she noted.
Ditto for victims of the current avian influenza virus, Skowronski said. Of the 153 cases of death reported to the World Health Organization, 94 per cent involved people younger than 40.
It?s crucial health officials reconsider their bird-flu priority strategy now because it will be next to impossible to switch tactics during an outbreak, she warned. ?The idea of children first needs to be discussed as one alternative.?
Of the several influenza strains that routinely infect birds around the world, the deadly H5N1 has health officials deeply concerned that it will mutate, allowing it to jump easily from human to human. That hasn?t happened, but responsible governments are preparing contingency plans for the pandemic that experts say will hit, Skowronski said.
?What could we be doing to try to mitigate the impact?? she asked. ?We?re more prepared today then we ever were yesterday or last year, but we will never be fully prepared.
?A new mutation can arise. We don?t know when that?s going to happen, but the possibility is there.?
The symposium was organized by Immunology Montreal a new scientific group founded by McGill University, INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier and the Universit? de Montr?al.
Last edited by a moderator:
