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MONDAY, Oct. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Over the past two flu seasons, vaccinating children five and younger did not reduce the number of child hospitalizations or doctor's visits linked to influenza, according to results of a new study.
Given the poor match between the flu vaccine and circulating strains during the last two years, "this finding is not surprising," said Dr. Robert Belshe, a professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the Saint Louis University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.
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"We know that the inactivated vaccine -- the flu shot -- doesn't work real well in children, particularly when the virus has evolved and drifted away from the type that is put in the vaccine," he said.
In contrast, the live attenuated vaccine given as a nasal spray is far more effective, Belshe contended. "A recent study showed that it is 50 percent more effective at protecting against flu, including these drifted viruses that don't match," he said.
Another study, this time in the October issue of Pediatrics, found that deaths caused by flu-linked staph infection are climbing among U.S. children, so the flu shot may still be important.
In June 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended for the first time that all children 6 months of age or older receive annual flu shots.
The new report was published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
In the study, a team led by Dr. Peter G. Szilagyi, from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., looked at 414 children aged five and younger who developed flu in the 2003-2004 or 2004-2005 flu seasons.
Among these children, 245 were seen in hospitals or emergency departments, and 169 were cared for in a doctor's office or clinic. The researchers compared the vaccination status of these children with more than 5,000 children from the same area who did not get the flu.
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