Elderly May be Immune to Swine Flu
Several of our recent blogs have been about how swine flu may be impacting your residents. If you still fear an outbreak at your facility, you may not need to panic about this just yet. The CDC recently announced that some older people have antibodies to the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu, according to an
article in
the Washington Post.
By analyzing stored blood samples, CDC researchers found that one-third of people older than 60 have antibodies that might protect them from infection with the new virus. The findings suggest that many older people may have been exposed to a flu virus decades ago that is similar to the new strain and triggered an immune response. Seasonal flu shots appear to boost that "memory" response a little, according to the article.
A vaccine made from the new strain should increase and sharpen the response to the point that a single shot would provide enough protection. Still, people who've never been exposed to a flu strain even remotely like the new one would almost definitely need two shots for protection.
While these findings are promising for the elderly and are important in the quest for a vaccine, Anne Schuchat, CDC's deputy director for science and public health, said it's too early to draw firm conclusions from the research, according to the article.