The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended Friday (October 30) during a press conference call a scheme vaccine against influenza A (H1N1) at a dose with products certified for all subjects aged over of 6 months.
She also called for the administration of any type of licensed vaccine against influenza A (H1N1), adjuvanted or not, pregnant women, as well as the general possibility of co-administer the vaccine against influenza A ( H1N1) simultaneously with that against seasonal influenza.
These recommendations are based on those issued by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE), an independent expert committee on immunization with the WHO, which met on Wednesdays only the issue of vaccination against Influenza A (H1N1) and has updated its recommendations issued in July, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, Director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research at WHO.
On the issue of immunization schedule, the specialist said that experts had examined the clinical trials, as well as the decisions and recommendations of the national authorities.
They decided to recommend a dose for all subjects older than 6 months, with the live attenuated vaccine, inactivated, adjuvant or not, and especially those of GlaxoSmithKline (Pandemrix *) and Novartis (Focetria *) on the database “of immune response and public health considerations,” she said.


Dr Kieny recognized that for very young children aged 6 months to 9 years, the immunogenicity data were “limited”. But in countries that have adopted children from the first priority groups for vaccination, the idea is to vaccinate “the greatest possible number of” children with at least one dose.
We also need more data for immunocompromised patients. But “in the meantime, these patients should receive a dose, and potentially a second because they are less responsive” to vaccination, said Marie-Paule Kieny.


The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has recommended Friday, October 23 maintaining an immunization schedule with two doses, recalls it.

Divergence of views between the WHO and EMERA
Asked about the difference in position between the WHO and the EMEA on the subject, Dr. Kieny said that the EMEA had decided that two doses were “preferable”, given that it had “not been the opportunity to analyze enough data yet”. “If we read between the lines,” the EMEA said that “a dose seems sufficient” for the licensed vaccines, GSK and Novartis. “We expect to see when (…) EMEA will change its decision” on these two vaccines in particular, “she added.
On the issue of pregnant women, the Sage has studied the safety data in the general population in clinical trials and in 14 countries have launched campaigns for mass vaccination. The safety profile of vaccines is “good” and “similar to that of vaccines against seasonal influenza. No particular adverse effect was reported, said Marie-Paule Kieny.
Also, pregnant women, at risk of complications, especially after the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, any vaccine, adjuvanted or not, may be used, insofar as no specific indication cons-n ‘ is identified by regulators, she added.
The WHO statement released Friday on the subject refers specifically to “no evidence of direct or indirect harmful effects on fertility, pregnancy, the developing embryo or fetus, birth or development post natal “in” Studies in experimental animals of live attenuated and inactivated vaccine adjuvants or not”.
Finally, the issue of co-administration of vaccines against influenza A (H1N1) and seasonal influenza, the SAGE was positioned on the possibility of a simultaneous injection in the vast majority of cases. “The exception is when both vaccines are live attenuated vaccines, that is to say vaccines administered nasally,” said Dr Kieny.

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