NJ requires flu shots for preschoolers
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:23:11 GMT
By LINDA A. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey on Friday became the first state to require flu shots for preschoolers, saying their developing immune systems and likelihood of spreading germs make them as vulnerable to complications as the elderly.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Fred M. Jacobs approved the requirement and three other vaccines over the objections of some parent groups.
Starting in September, all children attending preschool or licensed day care centers will have to get an annual flu shot, Jacobs said. That makes New Jersey the first state to require flu shots for preschoolers or older students, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Preschoolers are being targeted because their developing immune systems make them as susceptible to flu complications as senior citizens, and because they are more likely than older kids to spread the virus, state health officials say.
The new requirements "will have a direct impact on reducing illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths in one of New Jersey's most vulnerable populations — our children," Jacobs said in a statement.
A health advisory board Monday backed the new requirements on a 5-2 vote with one abstention after parents said they worried about the safety of giving young children dozens of vaccine doses. Some also say they don't want government making their medical decisions.
New Jersey also will require preschoolers to get a pneumococcal vaccine and sixth-graders to get vaccines against meningitis, which New Jersey already requires for college dormitory residents, and a booster shot against whooping cough, which in recent years has seen a resurgence blamed on waning potency of shots given to infants and preschoolers.
The four additional vaccines are recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups.
Some parents support proposed legislation that would give families a right to skip required immunizations by lodging a "philosophical objection," as some other states allow. The bill has been sitting in a committee without action for several years.
New Jersey does grant an automatic exemption on religious grounds and allows exemptions for medical reasons.
The new vaccines will be available for free for low-income families, and private insurers generally will cover the cost.
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NJ health department site: http://www.state.nj.us/health
New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination: http://www.NJAICV.org
Bird flu flares again in Asia
Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:41:06 GMT
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
HANOI, Vietnam - Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.
Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 virus, announced its 93rd death on Friday. A 47-year-old man died a day earlier in a Jakarta hospital, said Health Ministry spokesman Joko Suyono. The man fell ill on Dec. 2 and was admitted with flu-like symptoms, becoming Indonesia's 115th person infected with the disease.
In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death.
The two were believed to have eaten a traditional dish known as "beggar's chicken," in which the bird is wrapped in lotus leaves and baked. However, the cause of infection remained unclear.
Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, and experts say that no human bird flu cases have ever been traced to eating properly cooked poultry or eggs.
The father is recovering after taking the antiviral Tamiflu, said Hans Troedsson, World Health Organization representative in China. More than 80 people who had contact with the family were being monitored for symptoms.
Local animal health officials said last week no H5N1 outbreaks had been detected among the province's poultry, but Troedsson said sick birds typically are not reported prior to human deaths in China — a sign the country's surveillance systems need to be improved.
The virus has killed 208 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the WHO.
Scientists say it is impossible to predict what the H5N1 virus will do, but more bird flu outbreaks often occur when temperatures drop as winter sets in.
Officials in Pakistan were investigating the country's first suspected bird flu cases Friday after two poultry farm workers died this week after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms in Peshawar, said Khushdil Khan, medical superintendent of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.
Blood samples were sent to the Health Ministry in Islamabad for testing, but the results have not been confirmed, Khan said. Pakistan has grappled with bird flu outbreaks among poultry for the past two years, but no human cases have been reported.
Meanwhile, the disease has resurfaced in several provinces across Vietnam in recent months, killing or forcing the slaughter of thousands of birds. So far, 46 people have died from the virus nationwide.
Hong Kong closed its famed Mai Po bird sanctuary to the public for three weeks starting Friday after a wild gray heron discovered nearby tested positive for the virus. Russia and Poland also have experienced recent outbreaks among poultry, but neither have detected human cases.
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Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta, Indonesia; Audra Ang in Beijing; and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.