Almost all children under 18 should get annual flu vaccinations, a federal advisory panel recommended yesterday - the first time the vaccine is being suggested for groups who do not have the highest risk of death from the disease.
The recommendation to vaccinate 30 million additional school-age children is based on more than a desire to keep youngsters healthy and in class. Doctors hope it will protect their parents and grandparents, too.
"Kids are not just transmitters, they're amplifiers," said Dr. James King, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "If you're going to catch the flu, you're much more likely to get it from a child."
If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes the advisory panel's advice - and it usually does - the CDC would set in motion one of the largest expansions of flu vaccine coverage since the United States began giving the shots to the elderly after World War II.
In the future, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will consider making the recommendation universal for everyone over the age of 6 months.
Yesterday's proposal, covering all children 6 months through 17 years except for those with serious egg allergies, would not take effect until 2009. Officials said they held off a year because many doctors have already placed vaccine orders for the next flu season and might be unprepared for the logistical challenges that could come with administering so many more shots so soon.
The vaccination must be given from October through January every year - a period when children don't regularly see their pediatricians. "This poses a challenge," said CDC spokesman Curtis Allen. "But it's doable. It's important."
The CDC panel's recommendation would not make flu vaccination a requirement for attending school. Only state and local health officials have that authority. (New Jersey, for example, requires vaccinations for all children in day care or preschool.)
Instead, the CDC is asking pediatricians to make flu shots or nasal vaccine part of standard care for nearly all children, just as it has been for children ages 6 months through 5 years.
Flu shots are already recommended for the 218 million Americans at highest risk of death or serious illness, including young children, adults 50 and older, and people with weakened immune systems.
The recommendation to add more youngsters didn't come sooner, several doctors said, because vaccine shortages have been an issue over the past few years.
