Felicia Carner
Published: September 9, 2009
The twenty-eight confirmed cases of the H1N1 influenza at Luther College is an apparent example of the contagiousness of this virus.
It’s only natural for the medical world to find a way to, “to reduce and control the spread of the H1N1 illness within the community,” and that’s exactly how Dubuque Health Specialist, Mary Rose Corrigan explained the objective of a new vaccine the world is turning to.
The H1N1 vaccine started clinical testing on healthy adults and has just recently, on August 31st, begun testing on healthy children. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has predicted that a small amount of the vaccine will be available to the public.
Dr. Patricia Winokur with the vaccine research at the U of I says, “I think that mid-October there will be some vaccine available. I don’t think it will be enough to cover as many people as we want this vaccine to, and as many people as we think probably should get vaccinated in those high-risk groups.”
Dr. Winokur did reveal the priority list the Center of Disease Control constructed included; health care workers, pregnant women, and children.
With children being top on the list, parents have to make a decision whether or not they will get their child vaccinated.
Father of a Kennedy Elementary School student said, “If my pediatrician would recommend the H1N1 vaccine for my child, I would probably take him to get it.” While one parent would have no objection against his pediatrician or doctor, others raised a serious question.
“I don’t understand how the vaccine can be ready by mid-October if they just started testing on children?” asked another parent.
However, most health officials believe that the testing of the H1N1 novel vaccine on children will be sufficient enough.
Dr. Patricia Winokur explains, “The nice thing about this particular vaccine is that this vaccine is made in the exact same way that our flu vaccines have been made for decades. The manufacturing process is identical. So we expect that the vast majority of side effects that we see will be the exact same side effects that we see with the flu vaccine every year.”
Not all medical experts agree. Practitioner Dr. Charles Majors feels that the lack of research is alone a risk in taking the vaccine. He questions, “Where is the long-term research that will show that #1 it works, #2 that it’s safe? Where’s the long-term research?”
Inclusive interviews with Dr. Patricia Winokur and Dr. Charles Majors can be found on our blog.
Felicia Carner can be contacted at Felicia.Carner@loras.edu
