Emory Swine flu vaccine tested on 100 kids

Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta are vaccinating 100 children against the H1N1 "swine flu" virus. The vaccinations are part of a national pediatric study that began last week.

Federal health officials approved H1N1 vaccine studies on children after similar adult trials raised no major safety concerns.

"It may be even more important to do these studies in children," said Mark Mulligan, MD, associate director for clinical trials at the Emory Vaccine Center.  "Children are infected more often, and with more serious consequences, than are healthy adults."

"We think that seniors might have seen a virus like this a long time ago and might have some residual protection or immunity," said Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "Young people, with all (their social interactions), and never having encountered this virus before, seem to be the ones with the very high attack rates."

Emory is one of six locations around the nation conducting a "combination trial" Up to 650 children nationwide will receive both the H1N1 vaccine and seasonal flu vaccine at the same time to determine whether simultaneous vaccinations will safely protect them from infection.

Another trial, taking place at five other locations around the country, will help determine the proper dosage -- whether children require injections of 15 or 30 micrograms of vaccine to build up immunity.

Because it has been generations since Americans have been exposed to a flu virus of this type, researchers expect most people -- especially children -- will require a second H1N1 vaccination three weeks after they receive their first dose. Even then, it may take an additional two weeks for their bodies to develop full immunity.

That five week lag time would mean most Americans might not be protected until late November, at the earliest, since the vaccine is not expected to become publicly available until mid-October.

Early vaccination is one fringe benefit of participating in the trials. For one family's story, read my related blog.