From Gerard Baudains.
I WRITE to express concern regarding the recent exhortation by consultant Dr Muscat with regard to flu vaccination. Whether he was speaking on behalf of Health and Social Services or privately is not made clear, but the problem remains that the article was misleading.

I have written before on flu vaccination, viral medications such as Tamiflu, etc, but sadly the information appears to have been forgotten.

Firstly, the consultant appears to base his call for people to get flu vaccinations on the high number of people suffering upper-respiratory tract infections. Upper-respiratory tract infections are not caused by the flu virus, and therefore vaccination will provide no protection against this ailment.

Secondly, he states it is ‘essential that those in poor health receive the vaccination’.

I couldn’t disagree more. The vaccine concerned is designed to offer protection against either type A or type B influenza virus. Assuming that last year the experts correctly predicted this season’s strain of virus, at least you will be getting the right one (the wrong one will be useless). But how efficient is it? Sadly, not very.

Firstly, of all the influenza-like illnesses suffered each season, few are of type A or B.

Most are of unknown origin, some are rhinoviruses and around 15 per cent are type A or B, so the vaccination would only be successful in 15 per cent of cases, assuming it were 100 per cent effective. Sadly, effectiveness is far from 100 per cent. Healthy adults might expect effectiveness somewhere between 50 and 80 per cent, but this drops off sharply as people age. By the time people reach 70, the percentage effectiveness in low single figures is five per cent of 15 per cent, ie less than one, meaning that for every 100 people vaccinated in the group the consultant seeks to help, only one might receive some form of protection.

When one realises that many have suffered illness as a direct result of having the vaccination, one has to ask whether the advice given has been properly considered.
Glen-moor,
Le Vieux Chemin,
St. Clement.