Boomer H1N1 Flu Shots

Older Americans are normally at the front of the queue for shots against the seasonal flu viruses that circulate every fall and winter, and public-health officials and doctors strongly urge them to get one each year.  There's little wonder why: An estimated 36,000 people die in the U.S. every year from the seasonal flu, and 90% of them are 65 and older.

This Fall is different.  Boomers and older are nearly last in line for that shot.

The reason is the new H1N1 flu is largely sparing the 60-plus demographic, instead hitting children and young adults the hardest.  While it has spread like wildfire through secondary schools and colleges, and claimed more than 2,800 lives worldwide, few older people have even gotten sick.

That's because many people 60 and older were exposed to H1N1 viruses that circulated between 1918 and 1957.  Those earlier viruses were similar to the new H1N1 virus, so the immunity that some people built up then is helping them now.

A study by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about one-third of adults age 60 and older had antibodies that protected them against the new H1N1 virus.  By contrast, children had none.

The pattern is similar to one seen in the deadly 1918 pandemic, in which death rates were highest among young adults, according to infectious-disease experts.  One possible reason is that older adults had been exposed to similar flu viruses in the 1800s.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2009