School Kids, Parents Should Get Flu Vacc...(e most vulnerable is to vaccinate the sp...),Health

Another expert, Dr. Pascal James Imperato, distinguished service professor and chair of the department of preventive medicine and community health and director of the master of public health program at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City, says the researchers correctly conclude that schoolchildren are often responsible for the transmission of influenza.

But they also conclude that the parents of infected children serve as bridges to spread the disease to others, Imperato said. "This latter conclusion only holds true if the parents are not already immune to the viral strain, either through vaccination or natural infection," he said.

There are frequent changes in the influenza strains that predominate in any given year, Imperato said. "Age-specific increased or decreased susceptibility to a given strain of influenza virus very much depends on the previous epidemiologic history of the strain," he noted.

"Annual age group-specific recommendations concerning vaccination against influenza need to be made on the basis of the history of the predominant strains of virus circulating," Imperato said. "As a result, these recommendations may vary from year to year and cannot be based on a statistical outcomes model that does not incorporate this and other very significant variables."

More information

For more information on flu, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: Jan Medlock, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of mathematical sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.; Pascal James Imperato, M.D., distinguished service professor and chair, department of preventive medicine and community health and director, master of public health program, State University of New York Downstate Medical Ce
'/>"/>