Researchers targeted healthy young children because they experience the highest incidence of influenza disease and are an important source of its spread. This new vaccine is more convenient to give and, in particular, might be used in schools to prevent the occurrence of an influenza epidemic. The new vaccine is made from a weakened influenza virus. While it cannot cause influenza, it is designed to stimulate antibodies in the nasal passage that protect against naturally acquired infection. The flu affects up to 50 million people a year in the United States.
Epidemics usually occur between late fall and early spring.
More than 20,000 people die from influenza and its complications each year. Calif. The company has named the new product FluMist . Scientists at the University of Michigan, NIH and Aviron developed the new vaccine.