Vaccinate minors against the flu. This is the recommendation of the High Authority for Health (HAS). In a press release sent this Thursday, the HAS requests that “vaccination against seasonal influenza” be offered, and not forced, “every year to children without comorbidities aged 2 to 17 years old”.
Until now, annual vaccination against the flu was mainly recommended for people over 65 and people at risk, such as asthmatics or patients with certain heart diseases. On the other hand, influenza vaccines were not recommended for children, except those with risky “comorbidities” such as those mentioned above.
“Limit the impact of the flu on the population”
The opinion of the HAS therefore marks a change of footing of the French authorities, after years of debate on the individual and collective interest of mass vaccinating children against the flu. The opponents of this measure question the individual interest for children to be vaccinated against the flu, in view of the reduced risk of complications in their age group.
After reviewing several recent large-scale studies, including “reviews” that compile pre-existing work, HAS concluded that existing vaccines were effective and well tolerated in children over two years of age.
She therefore judges that there is an individual interest in vaccinating most minors, stressing that they have constituted a significant part of recent hospitalizations. But it is of course the collective interest that HAS insists: “The objective is […] to limit the spread and impact of influenza on the population”.
She is also in favor of full reimbursement of the vaccine for children, and, while recommending all vaccines in circulation, suggests administering the only one given by “nasal spray”, developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory.