A new report on the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, has a particular caution to parents of children with disabilities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities should be among the first to be vaccinated against H1N1 influenza.
CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said, "We also are recommending that all people with underlying conditions get vaccinated -- people who have asthma, diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, neuromuscular conditions, neurological conditions that increase their risk factors, and women who are pregnant." And high-risk children under 18 years of age should be rushed to a doctor at the first sign of the virus, Frieden said.
The vaccine is expected to be available by mid-October, and it's adding flames to the existing debate over the possible link between vaccines and autism. While there is no scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism, the debate over this issue is only heating up. It doesn't help that the H1N1 vaccine will be new and untested over time, and that reports (see Washington Post article) say many of the vaccines will have thimerosal, which contains mercury (which has been removed from many vaccines). Read what the CDC says about the vaccine.As of Aug. 22, there had been 556 deaths in the United States associated with the H1N1 virus as of Aug. 22 -- and 42 were children under 18. Seven of the children who died were younger than 5, and 24 had underlying disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, or another medical condition.
Learn more and keep up with this special section of the CDC's website.
1 comment:
I am a little uneasy about the H1N1 vaccine. I feel that it has been such a short time sine the H1N1 virus was first introduced and we already have a vaccination for it. It wouldn't be put out on the market if there was life threatening side affect, but how do we know that in the future there wont be to those who have received the shot? With any vaccination you are possibly taking a risk but suggesting this vaccination for children that are at high risk is unsetting to me. In our local hospital the nurses and Doctors are refusing to receive the vaccination. Knowing that these people work with potential carriers of the virus they are still refusing to get it. And yes we have cared for a patient that had the H1N1 virus. The article stated that “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children with high-risk medical conditions or disabilities should be among the first to be vaccinated against H1N1 influenza.” Knowing that these are high risk children they should be carefully monitors but these children are already at a high risk. Couldn’t this put them at an even higher risk? There have been a lot of cases of children with disabilities that have got the N1H1 virus and died its horrible for those families lost. Bottom line it just scares me knowing that the N1H1 virus is out there and affecting so many people, it scarred me even more that we have this vaccination and we don’t know to much about the long term affects
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