‘Game-changing’ flu vaccine to protect SA children like Clive
The state government is rolling out a ‘game changing’ vaccine with one distraught South Australian family saying it could have prevented their son’s severe reaction to contracting the flu.
Three-year-old South Australian Clive Bussenschutt is currently undergoing rehabilitation after suffering from severe side effects – including brain inflammation – from influenza after he failed to get a vaccine this year.
The State Government today announced the rollout of a new no-needle flu vaccine for South Australian children aimed to ensure other kids do not end up hospitalised like Clive.
Health Minister Chris Picton said the new no-needle nasal spray vaccine called FluMist would be free of charge for children aged between two and five starting next year.
Clive’s mother Monique Bussenschutt said if FluMist was an option, “we would have 100 per cent gone for it”.
She said Clive was not vaccinated this year amid time constraints and then “came down unwell really, really rapidly”.
“He had severe high temperatures of between 39.7 and 41, he started shaking uncontrollably, he was having seizures, his heart rate was over 210, his oxygen was low,” Bussenschutt said.
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“Clive has now been diagnosed with a permanent brain injury. He’s still in rehab at the moment, trying to get back to his baseline.”
Health Minister Chris Picton said that 1806 young children were affected by the flu this year, and more than 178 of those have ended up in hospitals with severe side effects.
Young people are a “key target group” for state government flu vaccine public health campaigns, Picton said.
“We are really excited now that we have a new game-changing product which will help us to increase those numbers even further,” he said.
“Only about 27 per cent of young kids at the moment are getting vaccinated, and with this new FluMist product, we are optimistic, will lead to a much higher rate of vaccination next year.
“Vaccines can be scary for kids. Our doctors, our nurses do incredible work to try to make sure that they can make it as easy as possible for kids to get vaccinated. But this FluMist has the potential to… make it as easy as possible to vaccinate.”
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FluMist is made by multinational pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and would be administered in South Australia by GPs. It was not covered by the federal vaccine procurement program, so Picton said the state government was “coming forward to procure this ourselves”.
“We think ultimately it would be good to have this on the national program right across Australia,” he said.
South Australia’s chief public health officer Dr Nicola Spurrier said parents do not expect complications when their child gets the flu, “but actually a certain number will have severe complications”.
“The flu is not just a simple cold; children get really sick with it – high temperatures, ear infections, sometimes bronchiolitis,” she said.
“In Clive’s instance, he ended up with an encephalopathy, which is an inflammation of the brain.”
FluMist is registered for two-year-olds to 19-year-olds for use in Australia, but Spurrier said “we’re going to focus on those little ones because we know they have the highest rate of hospitalisation”.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that we’ve got this as an option now for parents going forward,” she said.
The state government’s move to procure the needle-free vaccine comes days after the New South Wales and Queensland governments did the same.
It also follows significant inroads in the development of an Australian-made needle-free vaccine patch called Vaxxas.
Earlier this year, the Queensland-made vaccine patch secured $90 million in funding for its technology – a pioneering high-density microarray delivery system.
This funding will allow Vaxxas to fast-forward development of its HD-MAP to hit the market. It will also fund installation of semi-automated manufacturing lines and later-stage clinical trials.
