Australian government says healthy under 5s should not be given seasonal flu jab

doi:10.1136/bmj.c2991

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Ray Moynihan

¹Byron Bay, Australia

Australia’s health authorities have recommended that healthy children under 5 should not be given the seasonal flu jab, after preliminary research showed rates of febrile convulsions nine times higher than expected.

The 2010 seasonal flu vaccine in Australia is trivalent: it includes a vaccine against swine flu (H1N1) as well as two other strains of influenza.

In a statement released on 1 June, chief medical officer Jim Bishop said investigations had confirmed that a small number of children “have experienced fever with convulsions in the 24 hours after vaccination with the 2010 seasonal influenza vaccine. These reactions have been associated mainly with …