Vaccination Recommendations: Where We Are Now

Now that the H1N1 pandemic seems to have peaked, and Texas no longer has widespread illness, what is the current recommendation about vaccination?

Vaccine supplies for H1N1 are finally adequate to meet the needs of the priority groups, and vaccination is now being offered to individuals at less risk. But is it still necessary?

Visualize, if you will, the plot of number of illnesses per week. The number starts at zero, and steadily climbs well above the usual number of influenza-like illnesses for a typical season.

Even now, when we are in the beginning of the downturn of the number of cases, there are still more cases than in a typical flu season. In fact, because we are barely past the peak, about half of those who will become ill from this virus haven’t become ill yet – the downslope covers as much territory, in general, as the upslope.

In previous pandemics, spring outbreaks were followed by bigger outbreaks in the fall (as occurred this year) and again by renewed activity in mid-winter and the following fall.
Immunizations were not widely available for prior pandemics, so it is possible that if we do a really good job getting the population immunized, we might be able to prevent history from repeating itself.

It is also important to remember that the reason a flu virus causes a pandemic because most of the population is susceptible, and the virus doesn’t really stop circulating until nearly everyone has caught it or been immunized. This process will take longer, and more people will become ill, if we stop vaccinating against H1N1 now.

While you are in getting your H1N1 vaccine, get a seasonal influenza vaccine as well if you haven’t already done so. Seasonal influenza illness is likely to ramp up following the winter holidays.

Individuals with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, asthma, COPD and heart disease who haven’t had the pneumococcal vaccine should take the opportunity to get that as well. Pneumococcal pneumonia often attacks influenza victims just as they start to recover and can also lead to hospitalization and death.