Flu Vaccine Only Mildly Effective in Elderly

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Hi All,

 

See this:

 

Flu Vaccine Only Mildly Effective in Elderly; Second study found growing

resistance to antivirals, especially in Asia By Amanda Gardner

HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The

flu vaccine, a cornerstone of public health policy, is only mildly effective

in the population for which it is supposedly most critical: the elderly.

According to a study appearing in the Sept. 22 online issue of The

Lancet, vaccines against influenza are only " modestly effective " in

people in long-term care facilities and even less effective for elderly

people still living in the community. That research is twinned with

another flu study, which found more bad news: that resistance to drugs

used to treat influenza has risen 12 percent in the past decade. This

finding, the authors stated, raises questions about the government's

policy of stockpiling such drugs.

 

also ... The authors of the second study screened 7,000 influenza A

isolates for gene mutations known to confer drug resistance to the

antivirals amantadine and rimantadine. Overall drug resistance

increased from 0.4 percent in 1994-95 to 12.3 percent in 2003-04. Also,

61 percent of resistant viruses isolated since 2003 were from people in

Asia. Some Asian countries had drug resistance frequencies exceeding

70 percent, possibly a reflection of different prescribing practices.

Strikingly, more than 84 percent of all resistant viruses during the 10-

year period under question were identified since the 2003 flu season.

 

For more detail, see: http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=528105

 

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