As flu season approaches, parents will have one less option for protecting their children from the flu virus.
An advisory panel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this summer that the nasal spray FluMist was so ineffective that no one should use it, leaving some local doctors wondering if fewer parents will choose to vaccinate their children.
“I understand that a lot of kids don’t like to get the shot, but it is so important,” said Jonathan Schwab, medical director at Northampton Pediatrics.
He said that in prior years about 50 percent of parents chose the spray over the shot for their children and he worries that more parents might now choose to skip the vaccine altogether.
“If you look at the benefits versus the risk, it really makes sense to have your child vaccinated,” he said.
The flu can result in missed days of school and missed days of work if parents are forced to take care of sick youngsters. For young children, the flu could even be fatal.
“The flu is more than just the minor sniffles and a minor cold. It can make you pretty ill,” said Mike Klatte, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield.
The decision comes after the spray saw a decline in effectiveness over the last three years, with this past year showing a success rate of only 3 percent compared to 63 percent with the shots, according to the CDC .
Besides the shot, there is no other vaccine that is currently available for children who might be afraid of needles, Klatte said.
“A lot of the kids had been more willing to get a spray as opposed to a shot,” Klatte said.
While the two vaccinations work in much the same way, doctors are left scratching their heads as to why the spray is not working as it once did.
“In the past it has been shown to be effective, so the question could be: Does it have something to do with mutations in the flu strains? It is possible. It’s more likely that it has to do with how the body develops the immune response to the vaccine,” he said.
The main difference between the two vaccines is that the shot goes straight into the bloodstream, while the FluMist spray develops antibodies in the nose, Klatte said.
“With all the nuances of the immune system, the location can make a big difference,” he said. “We don’t have a definitive answer at this point.”
Schwab said that, while he also does not know for sure, the decline in effectiveness could have come from a shift in the types of flu strains that are most prevalent.
Since the spray was introduced a few years ago, the H1N1 flu strain has become one of the most common flu viruses in the United States, a change that the drug manufacturers might not have anticipated, Schwab said.
Despite the change, the CDC still suggests that all children should start getting flu vaccinations starting at 6 months old.
“It is important for parents to know that even though the nasal spray isn’t recommended, the children should still get the shot,” Klatte said.
Lisa Spear can be reached at lspear@gazettenet.com.