>I emailed him back to point out that all that is necessary is for the supply
>route to send one brand to some practices, and the other to others, and for
>at most a phone call to the previous practice in the rare cases of someone
>moving between doses, and acquiring one dose of the right stuff if
>necessary.
>
>That could be avoided by simply publishing a list of all practices and otehr
>immunisation sites, with the brand provided against each of them, stick it
>on the web where Google can see it, and Leave It To Us and the patients!
>
>--
>Adrian Midgley http://www.defoam.net/
The two brands (Baxter and GSK) in the UK are significantly different
in at least one respect.
One is egg derived and cannot be used in those with proven egg allergy.
The other is pork derived and while acceptable for injection for the
Jewish population (according to GPC verbal info) may not be
acceptable for some Muslims.
The number of doses is not entirely defined (general Internet info),
immunogenicity has been better than expected so in immunocompetent
adults one dose may be sufficient, but final decisions are
awaited. Info on young children and the immunocompromised clearly
essential. If two doses needed as Michael has already said MUST be
the same vaccine.
NOT in the UK (yet), but there may be an intra-nasal live attenuated
flu vaccine. Many countries and companies are working to produce vaccine.
Various things have been said about flu vaccine and Guillane Barre
Syndrome - GBS. GBS was related to the swine flu vaccine used in the
US in 1976. Studies on more modern seasonal flu vaccines have either
shown no relationship or an increase over background of 1 in 1 million!
The most credible thing I've heard about this in respect of the
current flu vaccines is that there have been no problems so far, but
we should not expect that rare and very rare side effects would be
reliably detected during the clinical trials phase for H1N1 2009 vaccines.
I do plan to get immunized and plan to advise others to do the same.
Julian
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