Vaccinating Children Against Flu Helps Protect Wider Community

Vaccinating Children Against Flu Helps Protect Wider Community
9 de marzo de 2010

A new study shows that when children get vaccinated against seasonal influenza, the entire community can benefit.

The study found that people living in communities where about 80 percent of the children were vaccinated against the seasonal flu were much less likely to contract seasonal influenza, even if they had not gotten vaccinated.

The study was conducted in religious colonies in Canada that have limited contact with the surrounding communities. The results offer clinical evidence that immunizing school children can be effective if preventing flu transmission to the wider community.

Mark Loeb, M.D., of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, led the study. The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

More information on the study can be found at www.nih.gov

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Vaccinating Children Against Flu Helps Protect Wider Community