The vaccine for the H1N1 flu won't be available until mid-October, but Dr. Iyabode Beysolow of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say parents should plan on getting their children vaccinated.
The younger you are, the more at risk you appear at getting very sick from H1N1. "Especially those under the age of two and those say five to 19 years old, more risk of serious complications of being hospitalized."
Beysolow was in Maine speaking to doctors at a conference on vaccinations in Hallowell sponsored by a couple of Maine medical societies. She told them that priority groups will be those between six months to 24 years of age, pregnant women, healthcare workers, and people with chronic diseases of all ages. Children under six months of age shouldn't be vaccinated, so it's recommended that their parents are.
Beysolow says it's not a good idea for parents just to vaccinate their children against swine flu because the vaccine confers no protection at all to the seasonal flu. She says parents who think that seasonal flu can be contained because others are vaccinated - what's known as herd immunity - are mistaken.
"Unfortunately with seasonal influenza, the viruses change from year to year, so there is no quote-unquote herd immunity that will protect your child from year to year. Each year, it's recommended to go ahead and get the seasonal vaccine for that year. Protection form one year will not protect you the next year."
For some parents, it's a struggle to get the entire family vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Now their younger children may potentially need to get four shots.
It's recommended that a child under nine who has never been vaccinated against the seasonal flu gets a shot folllowed by the booster. The official recommendation for H1N1 vaccine dosing is not out yet, but it appears that chlidren under the age of 10 will also need two doses of that vaccine.
"The booster has to be three to four weeks apart from the initial," says Dr. Steve Meister, Medical Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He says children under 10 may have to have shots administered three separate times.
"You go in one time and get your seasonal flu vaccine for your child. You go in a second time, you get the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1, and then you go in a third time and get the H1N1," Meister explains.
Meister says he understands that some parents are worried about giving their children more vaccines because they think that thimersol, a preservative that will be used in multi-dose vials of the H1n1 vaccine, can cause autism and other disorders.
He stresses that studies have shown no link between thimersol and autism, but says that parents who are concerned should talk to their doctors or school nurse, and consider the risks to benefits ratio of getting a vaccine.
"Imagine if their child has both flus at once," he says.
That's certainly a possibility that Dr. Chris Pezullo of University Health Care in Portland, is entertaining. Pezullo, among the several dozen physicians attending the conference, says that he is not being overwhelmed by H1N1 cases yet, but he's bracing for a busy fall and winter, when seasaonl flu peaks. "The concern is when January and February hit, we're going to have a much higher rate of infected people."
Pezullo says his concern is not a lack of flu vaccine -- the state expects to receive 115,000 doses of seasonal flu vaccine and about half a million doses of the H1N1 vaccine. He says he's more worried about people getting sick more than once this season and there being a run on anti-viral medication.