Lynda Burt

Comment on: DH director of immunisation tells nurses they have a 'duty' to have swine flu jab

Lynda Burt's comment 19-Aug-2009 12:56 pm

I would like to bring to your attention the work carried out by Jefferson et al a meta analysis on the efficacy of influenza vaccines. Link :- Jefferson T, Rivetti D, Rivetti A, Rudin M, Di Pietrantonj C, Demicheli V. Efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccines in elderly people: a systematic review. Lancet 2005;366:1165-74.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] Which is self evident in terms of community acquired viral infection. i.e. there appeared to be some minimal effect in community acquired infection but little to justify mass vaccination. Moreover there is the matter of a so called outbreak of a swine flu ( containing Hsw1N1 type) virus in 1976 (Influenza A/New Jersey/76) at Fort Dix in America Ref:- Swine Influenza A Outbreak, Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1976 Joel C. Gaydos,* Franklin H. Top, Jr,† Richard A. Hodder,‡ and Philip K. Russell§1 *Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA; †MedImmune, Incorporated, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA; ‡Northeast Center for Special Care, Lake Katrine, New York, USA; and §Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute, New Canaan, Connecticut, USA where 13 soldiers were found to have developed a flu like virus and one poor chap who was made to leave his sick bed to undertake a forced route march consequently died. Intensive investigation followed and showed that this particular strain had been confined within the camp however a mass vaccination programme was insigated with a vaccine that had been rushed through the developemnt process, and which resulted in over 500 cases of Guillon Barre syndrome of which 30 people died. Needless to say I will not be exposing myself to something which has yet to show real evidence of safety and efficacy, neither would I be prepared to give it to patients until they have been fully educated re its risks and benefits in order to make an informed choice, as I hold my duty of care to my patients ( in terms of do no harm !! ) as core to my practice Further link to info :- http://www.cochrane.org/influenza/reviews.html