H1N1 Vaccine is Now a Nasal Spray

With H1N1 vaccine expected to be made public sooner rather than later to protect citizens against the H1N1 flu, people are still wondering when this is going to happen. The date was set for October 15^th, and now there is some speculation whether or not it will be out by then.

Word just got out that the "companies making the vaccine began shipping a nasal spray that holds a live H1N1 virus and is expected to be delivered to 21 states, including New York, Washington DC, Illinois and Los Angeles." (www.cnn.com - Sabriya Rice) These specific locations have been targeted due to the larger outbreak of the H1N1 flu, and seem to have a higher ration of the pandemic spreading more rapidly the other states.

There are an expected "600,000 doses of the nasal spray to arrive at the decided locations" (www.cnn.com - Sabriya Rice). The first expected people to receive the nasal spray vaccine will be health care providers. The nasal spray is being given to people ages 2 to 49 that do not have any existing health conditions.

The cons about this nasal spray are that it may not be safe for pregnant woman or children younger than 2 years old. They speak of having a plan of liquid doses of this live virus for the children, but aren't specifying the target ages.

The biggest concerns are that they don't have a clear cut answer on how they are going to protect pregnant woman. Unfortunately, 28 of the pregnant woman who contracted this flu have unfortunately died from the impact.

This seems to be a pretty confusing news release to most patrons who have been watching the news daily and seeing the doctors injecting people with vaccines, rather than handing them a nasal spray. Due to the vaccine being put on hold last week for an unknown amount of time, this may be there only solution right now. With so many people worried as it is about the unknown side effects from the vaccine, which is to say for sure that the nasal spray is going to put anyone's worries to rest. Talk about a nasal spray solution has not been mentioned until now, and statistics are going too asked for before most people consider putting a live virus up their nose.

There still seems to be a lack of information on what the FDA and CDC plan to do about those over 49 and younger than 2 years of age. Hopefully, we'll get some more answers soon. The virus is spreading like rapid fire through many states right now, and the time of the vaccine/nasal spray is almost coming into play too late. Too many people have already contracted the virus, and it's populating faster than it can be controlled.