Archive - Sep 17, 2009

This comes to us from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. It's important reading if you have a compromised immune system, or if anyone in your family does. And it applies to seasonal flu as well as H1N1 "swine" flu vaccinations.... MILWAUKEE - While vaccinations for both the seasonal flu and H1N1 are among the best prevention...

(AP Photo/Yanina Manolova)Radha Chatterjee, right, Walgreens pharmacist, injects a flu shot into customer Michael Sokoll in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009. Drugstore operators are beginning their seasonal flu shot campaigns several weeks early this year, saying they expect greater demand for the vaccine in a year when the swine flu strain has dominated the news. The vaccine is intended to prevent the seasonal flu and is separate from vaccines for swine flu.

This comes to us from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. It's important reading if you have a compromised immune system, or if anyone in your family does. And it applies to seasonal flu as well as H1N1 "swine" flu vaccinations....

MILWAUKEE - While vaccinations for both the seasonal flu and H1N1 are among the best prevention tools available to prevent complications from the flu, should patients with immune deficiency be given the vaccines?

In general, there are two different types of vaccines. These are usually referred to as live or killed vaccines. Live vaccines contain live bacteria or a virus that has been modified. This means they've lost their disease-causing ability or are administered by a route that prevents them from causing clinical disease. Killed vaccines are just what the name says--the bacteria or virus in the vaccine is dead.