CDC: Kids may need multiple flu shots in fall

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Schoolchildren who have never had a flu shot before may need to get vaccinated four times in the fall — twice for seasonal flu, twice for pandemic swine flu, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told clinicians on Wednesday.

Five manufacturers are making vaccines against the novel H1N1 swine flu, said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro of CDC's Immunization Services Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

They are well on their way to having between 40 million and 160 million doses of egg-based vaccine available in the United States by October, said Dr. Pascale Wortley, the CDC's pandemic-vaccine coordinator.

On the high end, that would be enough vaccine for everyone in the U.S. who wanted it, but on the low end, it would require prioritizing distribution to health-care workers and those at higher risk for complications. Insurers are expected to cover the shots, she said.

Shots for children and pregnant women will be preservative free, about 20 percent of the lots manufactured, she said. They will either come in single-dose injections or as Flu Mist, the live virus that is squirted into the nose.

Adults will most likely get their shots from multi-dose vials, which contain Thimerisol, including very low levels of mercury.