Scientists work for better children’s flu shot as virus hits hard
MELBOURNE scientists are working to develop a more effective flu vaccine for children, by uncovering how the virus affects the immune system of young people.
With research showing influenza can reprogram a child’s immune system, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is aiming to tease apart what happens to the immune system when the flu hits a person for the first time.
Lead researcher Nigel Crawford, head of infection and immunity research at MCRI and director of SAEFVIC, the state paediatric surveillance unit for vaccine safety, said there was emerging evidence a person’s first exposure to flu helped dictate their lifelong susceptibility.
“There is real interest now about what they first exposure does to your immune system, and what that means for the future in terms of how you respond to infections and vaccinations,” Associate Professor Crawford said.
“Early work is showing that there is some sort of imprinting, reprogramming going on in your immune system that can impact the response.
“This study is trying to find out what happens to the immune system the very first time you get that infection.”
This has been one of the deadliest flu seasons on record, with five Victorian children dying this year. Already 280 kids have been admitted to the Royal Children’s Hospital, a four-fold increase on last year.
While children receive some protection after birth if their mother was immunised during pregnancy, that wanes. Children need to receive two doses of the flu vaccine the first year they have it to ensure they are properly covered.
At least 60 children from Melbourne and Sydney will be recruited in the first stage of the study to track their immune response.
“We want to use this information about the immune response to that first infection to make better flu vaccines,” Prof Crawford said.
“If we could have a universal flu vaccine that gives protection across all four strains, that is the goal.” FIREFIGHTERS battled a blaze in Norlane yesterday after responding to reports of smoke and flames billowing from a house.
A CFA spokesman said firefighters arrived yesterday afternoon to find black smoke coming from the windows of a Rose Ave home.
An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said paramedics were not required to attend the scene.