Pharmacists prepare for flu season

Abstract

Starting this flu season, all Americans age six months or older without a contraindication are advised to get vaccinated against influenza annually, but the dosing schedule for young children is a complex legacy of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus that emerged last spring. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a single annual influenza vaccination for children over age 8 years and adults. Children 6 months through 8 years of age who have never been vaccinated against seasonal influenza should receive two doses of trivalent vaccine administered at least 28 days apart, according to CDC. If only one trivalent vaccine dose was administered during the young child’s first immunization year, two doses should be given the following year and one dose annually thereafter. But children 6 months through 8 years of age who did not receive any doses of monovalent H1N1 vaccine last season need two doses of this season’s trivalent vaccine, which contains a pandemic H1N1 strain. Thus, a child who received two doses of trivalent vaccine last year but was not vaccinated against H1N1 should receive two doses of trivalent vaccine again this season—for four vaccinations over two seasons.