Via The New York Times, a fascinating report: Flu Shots in Children Can Help Community. Excerpt:
An unusual study done in 49 remote Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada has provided the surest proof yet that giving flu shots to schoolchildren protects a whole community from the disease.
Although previous studies have demonstrated what scientists call “herd immunity,” none have been so incontrovertible, because they were done in less isolated places with more sources of flu passing through.
Also, only one other study, done 42 years ago, immunized over 80 percent of a community’s children, as this one did. Success repeated in many separate communities with very high vaccination rates implies that the shots themselves — rather than luck, viral mutations, hand-washing or any other factor — were the crucial protective element.
The study, done by scientists from several Canadian universities and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, was paid for by the governments of Canada and the United States. It was published online Tuesday by The Journal of the American Medical Association.
“This is quite a definitive study, and it took a Herculean effort,” said Dr. Carolyn B. Bridges, an expert in influenza epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “My hat’s off to them.”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which supported the project, called it “a really nice study” and added that, even though it was done with seasonal flu shots in the 2008-9 winter, its results validated the American government’s decision to vaccinate children first during the recent swine flu pandemic.
“Not only was that clearly needed to protect the kids, but they probably wound up protecting the older people, too,” Dr. Fauci said.Via Google News, Helen Branswell of The Canadian Press provides excellent analysis of this report.
The Hutterites are very interesting people: Like the Amish, they're Anabaptists, but they're high-tech. You might call them Christian communists: They live communally with very little personal consumption, but their readiness to use the latest technology makes them extremely productive farmers. Their high birthrate, combined with limits on the size of their communities, means they're always looking for new land for new communities. This, plus their agricultural success, often annoys their rural neighbours.
Annoying or not, the Hutterites offer an alternative way of life we might learn from.
