In years past, the nation's attempts to prevent flu-related deaths have focused on limiting transmission of the virus through widespread vaccination programs. This year, with school starting up well before a vaccine for the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus will be available, there will be little that can slow the spread of the virus for the next few months.
But there may yet be something that can be done to reduce hospitalizations and deaths associated with the virus, commonly known as swine flu, public health authorities say.
Most of the serious consequences linked to the virus are the result of pneumonia, and an underused vaccine called Pneumovax can prevent, or at least limit, such complications in many patients. The vaccine, made by Merck & Co., stimulates the body's ability to neutralize the bacteria responsible for many cases of pneumonia, and it has the potential to prevent an estimated one-third of pneumonia deaths linked to swine flu.
"We would certainly like to see the vaccine used more extensively," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the preventive medicine department at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and president-elect of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Schaffner was a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on vaccines that in early June strongly affirmed current recommendations for who should receive the vaccine.
The normal target population for the pneumonia vaccine is a microcosm of those groups most likely to die or suffer serious complications from flu, so most experts say that eligible people should receive Pneumovax independent of its ability to affect the current pandemic.
But those recommendations have apparently slipped by largely unnoticed, Schaffner said.
U.S. sales of Pneumovax have not increased since June, according to John D. Grabenstein, senior director of Adult Vaccine Medical Affairs for Merck Vaccines and Infectious Diseases. Sales in Europe have risen, however, in response to similar recommendations by health authorities there.
"Unfortunately, I think too much emphasis has been placed on inappropriate administration of [the antiviral drug] Tamiflu, which has its own side effects and, aside from that, may create resistance," said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. "Most of my pulmonary patients are already getting [Pneumovax], but I am broadening my recommendation to other patients, since it is such a relatively harmless thing to do."
