Flu shots for healthy infants are being encouraged for the first time and public health officials anticipate that the vaccination will soon become routine.

Federal health officials are not requiring the vaccine for six-month-olds to 23-month-olds. But they are saying that it will likely be recommended in the next several years to prevent illness and hospitalizations.

``We know the disease is very serious among the elderly and people who have respiratory problems,'' said Jan Pelosi, the Texas Department of Health's director of the immunization division. ``Children and infants also are often hospitalized for influenza.''

Traditionally, doctors have focused on convincing mainly people ages 50 and older to get the shot, ideally in October or November before the worst of the flu season hits. People with underlying lung conditions, including children with asthma, also have been routinely advised to get vaccinated.

But many children don't. A 1998 study found that fewer than 10 percent of children with asthma were protected against flu.

The first flu cases of this season have yet to be confirmed in Texas, but federal health officials recommend that parents start early to get their infants protected. Children younger than 9 generally need two shots, one month apart, to be fully protected.

Other than some soreness at the site of the injection, the vaccine carries no risks, Pelosi said.

The vaccine contains trace amounts of mercury, a chemical element that has been phased out of childhood vaccines since concerns were raised in 1999 about whether the amounts exceeded safety guidelines. But Pelosi said parents shouldn't be worried, saying the flu vaccine's benefits outweigh any risks.

The FDA has also approved a mercury-free version. It's supposed to be shipped in the next week, said a spokesman for Aventis Pasteur, the manufacturer.

Most parents still don't know that the flu vaccine is being encouraged for all infants, according to pediatricians.

``A very few have been aware of the information and have requested the immunization. And even among those, most of the insurances don't cover it,'' said Dr. John Podgore, chief of the pediatric infectious disease division at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.

The discussion of flu shots comes at a time when children are receiving more vaccines.

Medical professionals say several steps are being taken to reduce that burden. More combination shots are being developed that will allow children to get several vaccines in one.

And a flu vaccine nasal spray is expected to be widely available, maybe within the next year - a move that doctors say will widen protection. Studies also indicate that the nasal spray may protect for more than one year, Podgore said.

Another study, published two years ago in The New England Journal of Medicine, reported that hospitalizations during the flu season for respiratory illness ran 12 times higher among healthy children younger than 2 years compared with older children.

Getting vaccinated also can have other benefits, particularly for children in day care, said Dr. Paul Glezen, an epidemiologist at Baylor College of Medicine's Influenza Research Center in Houston.

``Studies have shown that kids that get influenza vaccine have a 40 percent decrease in ear infections for the winter,'' Glezen said. ``So that's an incentive for a lot of parents.''

-----

Related News:

• More news on Childhood Immunization
• More news on Infant and Toddler Health
• More news on Influenza

More News on this Date

Related MEDLINEplus Pages:

• Childhood Immunization
• Infant and Toddler Health
• Influenza