| Reuters March 24, 2004 Although studies have indicated the safety of the use of FluMist, nasal
influenza vaccine for children and adolescents, questions regarding the risk of reactive
airway disease among children under the age of three still exists.
Research suggested that certain children who
received the FluMist vaccine had an increased risk for medical asthma-related visits
within six weeks after the vaccine was administered as compared to controls. However, it
was found that children who already had asthma before they received the vaccination, on
the whole, had decreased their risk of asthma compared to the control group.
Experts noted that these findings were the result of
conclusions following a trial of the nasal flu vaccine in children that fell in the 1- to
17-year-old age groups. In these studies, the children received at least one dose of
vaccine or placebo and the children 8 years or younger were given a second dose 28 to 42
days later.
Based on the evaluation of 9,689 children, there
appeared to be no definitive link between the vaccination and acute respiratory tract
infections, systemic bacterial infections, acute GI complaints and others possibly
associated with the flu. There was a four-fold increased risk of reactive airway disease
among children aged 18 to 35 months.
It was concluded that if this increased risk of
reactive airway disease was confirmed in another study, it would be a possibility the
children had never been exposed to a flu virus and might react differently to the vaccine.
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