Flu spray better than shots for young kids

ATLANTA: When it comes to flu vaccines, a federal panel says a squirt in the nose is better than a shot in the arm for young children.

The advisory panel voted Wednesday to advise doctors that FluMist nasal spray is a bit better at preventing flu in healthy young kids. The recommendation is specific to ages 2 through 8 only.

Some studies have found that kids within that age group are about half as likely to get the flu if they had the spray vaccine instead of a shot.

Federal health officials usually adopt the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. A flu vaccine is now recommended for virtually everyone over 6 months old.

AstraZeneca's FluMist is the only spray vaccine on the market. It was first licensed in 2003 and is approved for healthy people ages 2 to 49. Unlike flu shots made from a killed virus, it is made from a live but weakened flu virus.

Experts say the spray prompts a better immune response in children who may have never been infected with flu before, but there isn't a clear difference in adults.

The nation's largest pediatrician's group, however, objected to giving preference to the spray for kids. A representative of the American Academy of Pediatrics noted FluMist is more expensive, it can't be used for everyone and doctors have already ordered their vaccine doses for the fall flu season.

Dr. Michael Brady of Ohio State University also said the vote hinged on studies that were done before flu vaccine was encouraged for most children and vaccination rates were much lower. It's possible fresher data might not show such a difference, he said.

"We really feel you shouldn't place (doctors) and families in a situation where if they don't receive the live vaccine, they feel they're getting an inferior product. Because it may not be an inferior product," he said.

Health officials at Wednesday's meeting stressed that if doctors don't have FluMist in stock, flu shots are perfectly fine — both work. FluMist costs about $23; shots range from about $8 to $22.

Of children ages 2 to 17 who get a flu vaccine, 44 percent get FluMist, according to AstraZeneca. The company decided to make more for the coming flu season — 18 million doses, up from 13 million last year — partly in anticipation of the panel's vote, said Kathleen Coelingh, senior director of US medical affairs.

Unusual new penguin flu found in Antarctica

WASHINGTON: A new kind of bird flu has been detected for the first time in Adelie penguins in Antarctica, though the virus does not seem to make them sick, researchers said Tuesday.

The virus is unlike any other avian flu known to science, said the report in mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"It raises a lot of unanswered questions," said study author Aeron Hurt, senior research scientist at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, Australia.

The findings show that "avian influenza viruses can get down to Antarctica and be maintained in penguin populations," he said.

The study is the first to report on live avian influenza virus in penguins, though previous research has found evidence of influenza antibodies in penguin blood.

But it remains unclear how often various strains of bird flu are introduced into Antarctica, whether the deadliest types could make it there, and which animals or ecosystems allow the virus to survive.

Hurt and colleagues collected samples from some 300 Adelie penguins at Admiralty Bay and Rada Covadonga during January and February 2013.They found live, infectious avian influenza virus in eight samples, or nearly three percent of the birds. The penguins did not appear to be sick.

All the samples were found to be H11N2 influenza viruses that were highly similar to each other.

But when researchers compared the genome sequences of four of the viruses to a publicly available database of animal and human viruses, "we found that this virus was unlike anything else detected in the world," said Hurt.

"All of the genes were highly distinct from contemporary AIVs (avian influenza viruses) circulating in other continents in either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere."

One well known kind of bird flu is H5N1, which is believed to be carried by migrating ducks. Some 650 people have been infected with H5N1, and about 60 percent have died, according to the World Health Organization. It is also highly lethal to domestic poultry. (AFP)