News Specialist Ed Yeates Reporting
For the first time the Centers for Disease Control is adding infants and children to the list of those who should get flu shots.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates reports the recommendation is based on mounting evidence that children are reservoirs for infection both for themselves - and adults.
The CDC and local health departments say it's too early to predict what kind of flu season will have this year - but based on data collected from past years - children have rapidly become a high risk group worth protecting.
Out of 461 cases of flu reported to State Health this past flu season - 186 were kids six months to six years old. Of all those hospitalized with serious complications - 84 percent were children. If you add hundreds of clinics which treated unreported flu like complications, the actual numbers are much higher.
Craig Jorgensen / Physicians Assistant, Wee Care Pediatrics - CRAIG JORGENSEN, WEE CARE PEDIATRICS: "THE MOST COMMON IS JUST OTTIS MEDIA OR EAR INFECTION. THE MOST COMMON SERIOUS COMPLICATION IS PNEUMONIA."
Wee Care Pediatrics - which reports to State Health as a sentinel clinic - treated huge numbers of pneumonia last season.
During the height of the Olympics in February, Primary Children's Hospital cultured the highest number of influenza cases its seen in years.
Pediatricians have long known children are petri dishes for the spread of infection. The CDC says data collected from around the country now simply confirms that.
JORGENSEN: "IT'S HARD NOT TO FIT INTO A RISK CATEGORY. IF MOM COMES IN WITH SEVERAL CHILDREN - RIGHT THERE, THE RELATIVE RISK EXISTS IN THE HOUSEHOLD."
ED YEATES: "WEE CARE PEDIATRICS HAS ORDERED TWO THOUSAND DOSES OF FLU VACCINE WHICH SHOULD BE ARRIVING BY EARLY OCTOBER. THE VACCINE IS IN PLENTIFUL SUPPLY SO THEY KNOW THEY CAN GET MORE IF THEY NEED IT TO FILL SOME FIVE REFRIGERATORS HERE AT THE CLINIC."
Health care workers at this clinic have recommended flu shots for adults and children for a number of years now. They know how quickly kids can pick up infections, especially in day care centers and nurseries.
JORGENSEN: "JUST ONE DAY A WEEK IN THE CHURCH NURSERY IS ENOUGH TO BE EXPOSED TO VARIOUS DIFFERENT ILLNESSES, ESPECIALLY INFLUENZA"
Children under age nine - who have NOT had a flu shot before - will actually get two doses spread out one month or more.
