Effective Nasal Immunization May Attract Younger Flu Vaccine Candidates.(Brief Article)

2001 MAR 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - An intra-nasal flu vaccine tested on healthy older children and adults appears to be effective at reducing the incidence and duration of respiratory illness during flu season.

If it proves as effective in the frail elderly population, its appeal over injections may ultimately boost the effectiveness of flu vaccine campaigns.

"Most large-scale anti-influenza vaccination campaigns are still aimed principally at the elderly using injectable vaccines," noted A. Kiderman and colleagues. "Until now there has been much less emphasis on targeting younger populations or using intra-nasal vaccines in mass anti-influenza immunization programs."

Kiderman and team theorized that if an intranasally administered vaccine was effective in younger people, who also suffer considerable mortality from influenza, vaccine campaigns might be more successful.

The researchers assessed the efficacy of a new inactivated intranasal vaccine in 182 healthy patients age 12-60 in the winter of 1997-1998. A control group of 92 healthy patients was given a placebo vaccine ("A double-blind trial of a new inactivated, trivalent, intra-nasal anti-influenza vaccine in general practice: relationship between immunogenicity and respiratory morbidity over the winter of 1997-98," Journal of Clinical Virology, 2001;20(3):155-161).

At the peak of flu season, vaccinated subjects had significantly less respiratory illness than controls (14 events versus 22 events per 100 subjects per month) and the ...