Adventures of an Allergist Mommy

The Health Organization Committee that determines the composition of the yearly influenza vaccine met last week, and has decided to include H1N1 in the 2010-11 vaccine. It is recommended that the following viruses be used for influenza vaccines in the 2010- 2011 influenza season (northern hemisphere): – an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus; – an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus;# – a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus. For the full report, please go to: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/201002_Recommendation.pdf This was anticipated, but there was a chance that the H1N1 would still be separated into an additional injection, so I am pleased that my patients will only need a single dose of vaccine to get coverage for both seasonal and H1N1 influenza this coming year. Interestingly, the strain of H1N1 is the same as in the 2009-10 H1N1 vaccine- so it may actually serve as a booster dose for patients who received the vaccine this past season.

Thanks to the JCAAI for the following alert: The CDC has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program. The messages request that users must create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website. The message then states that anyone that has reached the age of 18 has to have his/her personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site. The CDC has NOT implemented a state vaccination program requiring registration on www.cdc.gov . Users that click on the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system. CDC reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack: •Do not follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages. •Use caution when visiting un-trusted websites. •Use caution when entering p...