Do you get flu jabs for your kids? Yes? No? According to a survey just released by American drug company MedImmune, 44% of all parents in the US have their children vaccinated. So what are the pros and cons?

Flu vaccination seems to be a hot topic at the moment in the country's current political fever as evidenced by the election-themed campaign "Flu Vaccination: Choose Your Administration." It's an effort to increase flu knowledge and empower Americans to take action for their health and the health of their families.

According to the media release by MedImmune, flu vaccination is an important part of the healthcare dialogue. The decision to vaccinate or not is particularly topical as it is the first flu season following expanded flu vaccination recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which now advises that all school-age children get vaccinated against the flu each year.

In a released parent-child survey, MedImmune points to an apparent knowledge gap about flu prevention. Key points MedImmune found in their survey are:

* Parents find flu vaccination unimportant - Parents ranked flu
vaccination sixth among seven proven and unproven options to protect against the flu - nearly equal with taking vitamins and dressing appropriately for the weather.
* Parents find flu vaccination unnecessary - Among parents whose
kids have not received the flu vaccine, one-third (32 percent) say that their child does not need the vaccine.
* Two out of three parents (67 percent) participating in the survey expressed a wish their children could get a flu vaccine without getting a shot, and approximately three out of four children (77 percent) have the same wish.

Check www.fluvote.com for full survey details.

After reviewing the fluvote site and particularly the CDC's site I was a bit disappointed to find only very general information on the topic. Especially since the focus of this survey seems to be on family and children.

There is very little information available aimed at parents (or it's not easy to find) on specific research done on flu vaccinations and effects on children. CDC recommends that all children aged 6 months and up to the age of 19 years get vaccinated. Given the pretty busy immunisation programme children tend to be on these days, as a parent I would want to read some evidence supporting the addition of another vaccination (anually!). Have there been any longterm studies researching the effects of the vaccination on children and their propensity to get ill. Are there any side effects that are particularly common among children? A lot of unanswered questions for me (or again, answers that are hard to find on the site).

So while the initiative seems like a good idea I think it's a bit short on relevant and specific information for parents wanting to educate themselves about the pros and cons of vaccinating their children. So I can't say I'm surprised there is still some reluctance amongst parents to have their children vaccinated. So a great suggestion for the CDC website would be to provide all of this information in an easily digestible format rather than simply recommending a course of action.

-Stefan

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