- Choice of Brand-Name Drug Over Generics Costs Medicare Nearly $2 Billion Annually
- Does an Arthritis Drug Help Patients Battling Severe COVID? It Depends on the Study
- Patients With Sickle Cell Disease Often Overlooked for Life-Saving Kidney Transplants
- Scientists Gain Insight Into Genetics of Glaucoma
- Social Media, Binge Eating Often Go Together for Kids
- How Climate Change Could Put More MS Patients in Danger
- What You Need to Know About the New J&J COVID Vaccine
- Skipping Mammograms Raises a Woman’s Odds for Breast Cancer Death
- Could ADHD Raise Odds for More Serious Psychiatric Ills?
- AHA News: A New Heart at 18 Put Her on a New Path
Flu Vaccine for Seniors Approved
THURSDAY, Dec. 24Fluzone High-Dose, a seasonal flu vaccine for people 65 and older, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency said in a news release.
Seniors are at highest risk for complications of seasonal flu, including hospitalization and death. The Fluzone High-Dose vaccine, designed to prevent infection with influenza subtypes A and B, was given accelerated approval as a product designed to prevent serious or life-threatening disease. As part of the approval, manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur is required to “conduct further studies to verify that [the vaccine] will decrease seasonal influenza after vaccination,” the FDA said.
Because of the vaccine’s higher potency, mild side effects were reported more frequently compared with Sanofi’s standard-strength Fluzone vaccine, the agency said. These included pain, injection-site redness and swelling, headache, muscle ache and fever.
People who are sensitive to egg products or who have had life-threatening reactions to prior flu shots shouldn’t be vaccinated with Fluzone High-Dose, the FDA said.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about flu vaccination.
Source: HealthDay
