Robert Jacobson, M.D., chair of Mayo Clinic’s pediatric and adolescent medicine departments, will participate in a Mayo Clinic/USA Today Twitter chat about H1N1 flu in children with asthma on Wednesday, November 18 from 8-9 p.m. EST.
The chat, which will be led by Mary Brophy Marcus (@BrophyMarcUSAT) of USA Today and Dr. Jacobson (@RobertJMD), will enable parents to ask questions about H1N1 flu and children, and particularly about the special concerns for children with asthma. Use the #kidsflu tag in your tweets to join the conversation.
Updated 11/18/09: See Mary’s article on H1N1 and kids with asthma in this morning’s USA Today.
As background for the #kidsflu conversation, Dr. Jacobson discusses ways to prevent H1N1 and some of the implications of this flu season for parents of asthmatics:
Tweet your questions for Dr. Jacboson using the #kidsflu tag in Twitter, or ask them in the comments below.
Are there more reliable ways we could use to produce vaccines in the future?
Yes, in the future we will move from growing the vaccine virus in hen’s eggs and instead grow them in cell cultures. This will improve the speed and the volume of vaccine we can make.
My son has Asthma and had the flu, he wasn’t tested so we don’t know if it was H1N1. He was treated w/ Tamiflu and recovered and has since rec’d the H1N1 vaccine. Can he still contract the H1N1 virus? If he does, will I still have to watch his asthma as closely? I have him do a peak-flow every morning and evening to stay on top of his asthma.
The vaccine works well but it is not perfect. Having received the vaccine, he is much better protected now. You should monitor his asthma as you would any cold-and-flu season but take symptoms and signs seriously.
Yes, in the future we will move from growing the vaccine virus in hen’s eggs and instead grow them in cell cultures. This will improve the speed and the volume of vaccine we can make.