I’ve been reading about trials over here in Australia for the swine flu vaccine, with one in particular focusing on infants/children. The age range for this trial is 6 months old through to 8 years old.
Can anybody shed any light on why they would only start with 6 month olds, why not earlier?
Young babies don’t have a fully developed immune system, so a vaccine wouldn’t have the desired effect.
To expand on Smeghead’s answer, the normal flu shot is only approved for people over 6 months old, so this swine flu trial is going to abide by that protocol. It’s also the case that one of the risk groups encouraged to get a flu shot is “people with babies under 6 months old” entirely because the babes can’t get the shot for themselves.
In 1967 my wife and I flew into the US with a 6 week old baby and an 18 month old. In those days, you needed a smallpox vaccination certificate to enter the US. We had three of them plus a letter (in German) explaining that the vaccination was inadvisable for a 6 week old with excema. The infant was in a kind of basket. We presented the three certificates without comment to the health officer and he waved us on never realizing there was a baby in the carrier. A year or two later, travelers from Europe became exempt from vaccination requirements and within ten years smallpox was gone, hopefully forever.
Thanks Cheesesteak.
We do actually have a 2 month old at home which is why I asked the question and will definitely get the vaccine as soon as it becomes available.
I also understand that an infant’s immune system is not fully developed, but was curious as to the medical/scientific reasoning for why some vaccines can be given earlier than others. If any Dopers with the relevant medical or scientific background might be able to answer this, I’d greatly appreciate it.
This is a total WAG, but: many flu vaccines use a small amount of the live virus, so that your body’s own immune system learns what this bug is and how to fight it. I’m guessing that that might pose a problem to an infant, whose immune system is still underdeveloped.
And even if the people who develop the vaccine think that it might be safe for infants, with the yearly flu vaccines there probably isn’t time to test it for safety, not to mention - do you want to volunteer your baby for a vaccine safety test? I don’t!
Anyway - I’m not at all a medical person, but that’s my guess.
If the mother got the shot and was breastfeeding the infant, wouldn’t Mr/Miss Baby get some immunity through the breast milk