CHICAGO — Part of a baby’s protection against the H1N1 flu
depends on its most natural interactions with its mother, but other measures
are needed as well. Below are answers to questions about the swine flu virus:
Q: Do newborn children have any antibodies in to fight the
virus, or are they at a huge risk to die from the virus?
A: “Babies are indeed born with some of their mother’s
antibodies against influenza,” said the University of Chicago’s Kenneth
Alexander, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, “and more antibodies
are transferred in breast milk, another reason why breast-feeding is the best
form of nutrition for babies.”
But the anti-influenza antibodies from the mother and in
breast milk are insufficient to prevent infection entirely, he said, which
means newborns are more at risk of contracting severe influenza than older
children, particularly newborns with heart and lung problems common in
premature babies.
“Unfortunately, infants respond poorly to flu vaccine
until age 6 months, so that doesn’t help us much either,” he said.
“That is why it is so important that family members of young children seek
flu immunization to create a ‘cocoon’ of protection around the infant.”
Q: Can the virus be passed through breast milk?
A: “Influenza virus does not pass in breast milk,”
Alexander said. “Babies catch flu the same ways that all of us do. They
inhale droplets from the coughs and sneezes of infected people, or babies
acquire the virus by direct contact. This is why it is important to wash your
hands before handling a young infant.”
Q: Would someone who had the Spanish flu in 1918 have an
immunity to H1N1?
A: There is no current evidence that exposure to and
recovery from the 1918 Great Influenza offers any protection against the 2009
H1N1 influenza, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease and
immunization expert at Vanderbilt University Medical School.
Q: Does having H1N1 give you permanent immunity to it?
A: People who had laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 in the
spring or who currently have it will not get infected with this particular
strain again, according to Dr. Julie Morita, medical director for the Chicago
Department of Public Health’s immunization program.
But that does not mean you are permanently immune to swine
flu.
“It is possible that in subsequent seasons the virus
may change a little … and even people who were sick previously no longer will
be immune to it,” Morita said.
Every year there is a seasonal flu epidemic because of minor
changes in the virus, according to Morita. When a pandemic occurs, as it did
with H1N1, it is a completely new virus.
“We don’t expect the H1N1 strain will change
dramatically in the coming years, but there may be a small enough change that
people will get infected again, even if they had it this year,” Morita
said.
Q: Does the H1N1 vaccine include adjuvants, such as
squalene?
A: Adjuvants boost a person’s immune response to vaccines,
but neither the H1N1 vaccine nor the seasonal flu vaccine includes any
adjuvants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC did, however, purchase squalene to have on the shelf
in case of an emergency or as a contingency plan, said Dr. Anne Shuchat,
director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory
Diseases.
“If the virus mutates and becomes much, much different
and more severe, we might need to add adjuvants in order to have an immune
response that’s effective,” Shuchat said during a CDC podcast. “But
for the time being, we really aren’t expecting to use them.”
For years, there have been claims by some Gulf War veterans
that the Department of Defense added squalene to the anthrax vaccine in 1999 to
stretch the supply, causing Gulf War syndrome, an autoimmune disease. However,
several independent panels have investigated the allegations and found no
evidence that squalene was added to the vaccine, according to the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration.
Europe has safely distributed seasonal flu vaccine with
squalene since 1997, federal health officials said. But in the U.S., the only
adjuvants licensed for use are aluminum gels or aluminum salts, used in
vaccines for illnesses such as tetanus, diphtheria and childhood hepatitis,
officials said.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
