Younger children will need two doses of the vaccine against the new pandemic of H1N1 influenza.
U.S. officials said tests of Sanofi-Pasteur's swine flu vaccine showed children respond to it just as they do to seasonal flu vaccines, with children over 10 needing only a single dose but children under 9 needing two.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said young children will likely need to have their doses 21 days apart. But he said they could receive seasonal flu shots and H1N1 shots on the same day — something that could ease the logistics of vaccinating children multiple times.
Children aged 10 to 17 mounted an immune response that should protect them from H1N1 within 8 to 10 days, Fauci said.
With seasonal flu vaccine, children under 9 who are getting a flu vaccine for the first time need two doses, so Fauci said it is likely that young children who have never had a flu vaccine before will need four doses this year — two seasonal flu doses and two swine flu doses.
