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All my life I have gotten the flu at least once a year. Sometimes more. About 15 years ago I just stopped. I don't get the flu. I don't catch a cold. I don't have flu shots.
The flu shot does not prevent the obama open border flu either.
Both studies looked at the effectiveness of flu vaccines in people who were or were not using statins. Taken together, the results connect statins to a dampened immune response to flu vaccines and greater odds of respiratory infections during flu season. The findings, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, pose a particular conundrum for the elderly, who are more likely to die or face serious complications from the flu and also more likely to take statins to prevent potentially fatal heart attacks and strokes.
But until more research confirms exactly how statins interact with the vaccines, older patients should stay the course with both their medications and vaccinations, said Dr. Robert Atmar, an infectious disease researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston who wrote an editorial accompanying the studies. “Statins shouldn’t be stopped because they already have been shown to lead to significant benefits such as decreased mortality due to cardiovascular events,” Atmar said by email. “Patients should also continue to get vaccinated against influenza because it is still the best way to prevent getting sick.”
In one of the studies, researchers analyzed data on how well more than 5,000 people over 65 responded to different versions of the flu vaccine during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 flu seasons in the U.S., Colombia, Panama and the Philippines. About three weeks after getting vaccinated, the people who didn’t take statins produced 38 percent to 67 percent more antibodies against the influenza virus than people who used the cholesterol drugs. Since statin use wasn’t randomly assigned, it’s possible that the diminished effectiveness of the flu vaccines might be due to other factors, acknowledge the authors, who are affiliated with Novartis, a leading flu vaccine manufacturer.
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1. Seasonal Flu Shot May Double Swine Flu Risk
A Canadian study found that people who are vaccinated against ordinary seasonal flu double their risk of catching swine flu. The unpublished study has stunned government agencies and thrown national vaccination plans into upheaval as well as tested the publics faith in the governments ability to protect their health. Although many experts are skeptical of the studys results, several provinces in Canada have announced plans to suspend seasonal flu vaccinations.
It has confused things very badly, Dr. Ethan Rubinstein, head of adult infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba, told The Globe and Mail. And it has certainly cost us credibility from the public because of conflicting recommendations. Until last week, there had been much encouragement to get the seasonal flu vaccine.
Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan provinces have suspended seasonal flu shots for all people under 65 years old. Instead, they are focusing on vaccinating for the H1N1 swine flu virus during the autumn months and plan to resume seasonal flu vaccinations early in 2010.
By the time the H1N1 wave is over, there will be ample time to vaccinate for seasonal flu, Rubinstein said.
So far, health authorities in the United States have stated they havent found a similar link. The head of vaccine research for the World Health Organization has suggested the Canadian study is flawed, but Dr. Rubinstein doesnt agree.
There are a large number of authors, all of them excellent and credible researchers, he said. And the sample is very large12 or 13 million people taken from the central reporting system in three provinces. The research is solid.
Senior citizens, who carry antibodies that seem to largely protect them from the effects of H1N1, are still urged to get the seasonal flu shot, since they are more likely to be susceptible to the worst effects of seasonal flu.
Scientists do not understand the link between seasonal flu shots and the H1N1 virus. At the present time, it is quite perplexing, said Dr. Rubinstein.
I received this in an E-mail newslink, so there is no link to the article.
Scientists at the University of Missouri designed a new version of the flu vaccine replacing the adjuvant aluminum hydroxide with protein lactoferrin, finding it worked to prevent infection. Aluminum hydroxide is used in the vaccine to provoke an immune response, in this case irritating the vaccination site to attract white blood cells called neutrophils to the area. Without attracting the cells, the body cannot learn to fight off infection when exposed to pathogens.
Neutrophils naturally secrete lactoferrin, which is also found in mother's milk and protects infants from infection. Boosting the amount in the body, researchers thought, could suitably replace the aluminum hydroxide. "Influenza vaccine works by stimulating a person's immune system to make antibodies that attack the flu virus," said Dr. Michael Sherman, a researcher in child health at the University of Missouri's School of Medicine, in a press release. "However, infants younger than six months do not make antibodies when given flu vaccine. This is because the immune systems of these very young babies do not respond to the adjuvant, or additive, within the vaccine that boosts the body's immune response when confronted with a virus."
Infants are at greater risk for flu because of their immature immune systems and the lack of an effective vaccine against infection.
Researchers working on the study, published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, gave groups of mice similar in age to human infants a vaccine containing either aluminum hydroxide or lactoferrin and then exposed them to a strain of the flu.
Lactoferrin appeared to work better than aluminum hydroxide, and also offered four to five times more protection from flu when compared to a group given the vaccine without any type of adjuvant. "Currently, the best protection for neonatal babies is to vaccinate the mother and all those who will have close contact with the infant," Sherman said. "Our recent study was meant to test the possibility of creating a safe and effective flu vaccine for very high-risk premature infants. Now that we have, we feel that the use of a natural protein would make immunization not only possible but more accepted."
Scientists design flu vaccine to protect infants from infection
