Four children in Japan died last week after being vaccinated with several childhood shots simultaneously. The shots included Pfizer’s meningitis and pneumonia preventive Prevenar and Sanofi’s Hemophilius influenza vaccine ActHIB. The Japanese government has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday.

There has not been a conclusion as to whether or not the shots were directly related to the fatalities, but an investigation is underway. Both Sanofi and Pfizer are fully cooperating. Sanofi’s ActHIB had been administered to three of the four children, while Prevenar was given to all four. Last year there were three deaths in the Neatherlands after the shots had been taken, but there was no link found between the shots and the deaths.

The Pfizer shots have been used in the United States and Europe for over a decade and more than 2 million doses of the shot in Japan since last year. Sanofi has shipped more than 3 million doses of ActHIB in the country since 2008, and more than 200 million doses have been given to children in at least 120 countries.

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Researchers report that more effective flu vaccines might be on the horizon. While researchers have already deciphered the molecular structures of essentially all flu virus strains, less is understood about how the immune system recognizes these pathogens. Researchers 58 strains of influenza A virus.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued its annual recommended immunization schedules for children and adolescents in the United States — these include extending the age range for influenza vaccination and giving the new human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, to girls between 11 and 12 years old.

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children and kills roughly 500,000 children a year globally. In the United States, rotavirus affects 2.7 million children in an average year and 75 percent of children get diarrhea from rotavirus by their 5th birthday.

If Merck & Co. have their way (and they do), girls will be vaccinated with the new cervical cancer vaccine, Gardisil. The Centers for Disease Control added Gardisil to the already existing vaccine regimen for girls and women 9 to 26 years old.
Gardisil is a ready-to-use, three-dose, intramuscular vaccine which should be administered in three separate intramuscular injections in the upper arm or upper thigh over a six-month period. (Yahoo)