In the annual war against flu, the battle is only made worse by the fight to obtain factual and relevant information about the virus – its prevention and the relevant safety of alternate cures.

The new vaccine will protect against an influenza A H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the H1N1 virus that emerged in 2009 to cause the epedemic.

There is a new vaccine on the market which has been designed for the elderly, it has been specifically designed for those 65 years of age and older – seniors. I has been released by Sanofi Pasteur under the name of Fluezone High Dose.

Why the high dose for seniors ? and is it safe. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is claiming that it I indeed just as safe other regular flu vaccines, but your need to read the details of the CDC website to get the real picture. There appears to be a lot more side effects than one would expect, including fevers. Which is surely what our seniors would want to avoid and the reason they are taking vaccines.

According to CDC - “The safety profile of Fluzone High-Dose vaccine is similar to that of regular flu vaccines, although adverse events (which are also reported after regular flu vaccines) were reported more frequently after vaccination with Fluzone High-Dose.

The most common adverse events experienced during clinical studies were mild and temporary and included pain, redness and swelling at the injection site and headache, muscle aches, fever and malaise.”

So why did Sanofi release a vaccine with  higher dose ?

Apparently this new dose has more than four times the amount of microbial antigens. These microbial antigens are the flu virus which ha been altered in the lab to prompt your body into producing its own antibodies to the different strains it recognises in the vaccine. The maker claims that seniors need more antigen for the body to provide the desired immune response. They claim that their studies have found the flu vaccine would otherwise create a weaker response in the elderly and hence it might not actually work.

However, if one reads the leaflet inside the pack it contradicts this totally

 “Data from clinical trials comparing Fluzone to Fluzone High-Dose among persons aged 65 years or older indicate that a stronger immune response (i.e. higher antibody levels) occurs after vaccination with Fluzone High-Dose.

Whether or not the improved immune response leads to greater protection against influenza disease after vaccination is not yet known. An ongoing study designed to determine the effectiveness of Fluzone High-Dose in preventing illness from influenza compared to Fluzone is expected to be completed in 2014-2015.”

Guinea Pigs

Does this mean then that the study continues over the next four years, before this high dose is confirmed as effective, and for the next four years, our senior are basically experimenting for the drug companies ? And does the statement really mean they don’t know if the vaccine will be effective for seniors ?

Higher Dose – more risk of Adverse Side Effects

The manufacturer’s safety studies have confirmed,  that compared to the regular vaccine the high-dose version not only resulted in more frequent reports of common adverse reactions, but that it also caused slightly higher rates of Serious Adverse Events, if you can interpret what that means ?

The number of seniors suffering side effects jumps form  6.1 percent  to 7.4 percent from those receiving the high-dose version.
And this is the list from the leaflet from the high-dose vaccine of some of those side effect which include:

• Thrombocytopenia (abnormally low platelet count, which can result in abnormal bleeding)
• Guillain-Barre syndrome
• Myelitis (spinal cord inflammation)
• Optic neuritis (inflammation of the optic nerve)
• Lymphadenopathy (enlarged lymph nodes)
• Facial palsy (Bell’s palsy)
• Paresthesia (numbness/tingling of the skin)
• Itchy skin
• Anaphylaxis (life-threatening whole-body allergic reaction)
• Stevens-Johnson syndrome
• Vasculitis (inflammatory destruction of blood vessels)
• Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Brachial neuritis (excruciating unilateral shoulder pain, followed by paralysis of shoulder)
• Pharyngitis and rhinitis (inflammation of the throat or pharynx, and the nose, respectively)
• Convulsions, fainting, dizziness

How many people need to be injected to prevent the flu ?

The PubMed Health library quotes in July 2010 -

“Over 200 viruses cause influenza and influenza-like illness, which produce the same symptoms (fever, headache, aches and pains, cough and runny noses). Without laboratory tests, doctors cannot tell the two illnesses apart. Both last for days and rarely lead to death or serious illness. At best, vaccines might be effective against only influenza A and B, which represent about 10 percent of all circulating viruses. Each year, the World Health Organization recommends which viral strains should be included in vaccinations for the forthcoming season.

Authors of this review assessed all trials that compared vaccinated people with unvaccinated people. The combined results of these trials showed that under ideal conditions (vaccine completely matching circulating viral configuration) 33 healthy adults need to be vaccinated to avoid one set of influenza symptoms.

In average conditions (partially matching vaccine) 100 people need to be vaccinated to avoid one set of influenza symptoms.

So we really need to ask ourselves the question as to whether or not it really is worth risking the health and well-being of 100 people in order to prevent one case of the flu.

And even then,  which may or may not result in serious illness or death in that one individual

While the annual flu vaccine is touted as the best way to avoid catching the seasonal flu, what many fail to realize is that there’s virtually no good scientific evidence to support it.

One might be forgiven for thinking that  flu vaccines do not appear to have any measurable benefit either for children, adults, or seniors.