Young people take pass on flu-shot trials

Wanted: Young people in Winnipeg between the ages of 18 and 40, up for making a few bucks, not afraid of needles and willing to be among the first to test the new H1N1 pandemic vaccine.

A doctor in Manitoba's capital city, about to embark on clinical trials, is struggling to recruit these young guinea pigs - a group that is at higher risk of contracting the virus and whose reluctance to sign up for a trial shot may be indicative of a larger problem for health authorities when the country begins its mass-vaccination campaign this fall.

The young and healthy, who feel invincible, have generally shied away from getting the seasonal flu vaccine. But the H1N1 strain has disproportionately affected those born after 1957, ravaging the lungs of some and forcing them to spend weeks in hospital.

Fred Aoki, charged by drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline with leading one of the country's tests of the new H1N1 vaccine, has only recruited six young people out of the 20 he needs for his trials. Older adults stepped up quickly to fill the spots.

"I suspect it's the sense that young people feel they are immune to any serious problems of any sort," said Dr. Aoki, a professor at the University of Manitoba's medical school. "And I think they also feel they won't be particularly affected by H1N1, notwithstanding the experience we've had so far with it."

The median age of those admitted to hospital in Canada is 25 years. Doctors believe that young people have been particularly hard-hit because the H1N1 virus resembles a strain of flu that circulated before 1957, to which older people have been exposed. Yet a recent Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll found that 56 per cent of adults 18 to 34 years say they don't intend to get the H1N1 vaccine.

Kumanan Wilson, Canada Research Chair in public health policy at the University of Ottawa, said the federal government, which has purchased enough vaccine for all those who need and want it, faces a huge challenge.

Not only do young people believe they are indestructible, but there are a number of factors fuelling this vaccine-refusal sentiment.

Among them is the backdrop of 1976, where an outbreak of swine influenza in the United States led to fears that a pandemic was emerging, and millions were inoculated. There was no pandemic, but hundreds in the U.S. developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a temporary paralytic condition. About 25 deaths were attributed to the vaccination program.

Dr. Wilson said that even in the 1976 worst-case scenario, only 1 in 120,000 developed the adverse reaction, and manufacturing procedures have improved since then.

Anxiety about being vaccinated also stems from the use of an adjuvant in Canada's vaccine. Adjuvants - chemical boosters that can increase production - are in many common vaccines, but have not previously been approved for influenza vaccines.

The Canadian government said it plans to use the adjuvanted vaccine because the non-adjuvanted drug didn't work as well in clinical trials in protecting people against the avian flu strain. The government reassured the public yesterday that the vaccine will have a strong safety profile.

Dr. Wilson said that if the virus spreads rapidly, people may then start clamouring for the vaccine. "But it may be too late by then," he said.

"I'm not sure if public health officials realize how important it is to get out there, upfront, and start selling this program in the right manner and reassuring the public, or at least addressing their concerns."

The Public Health Agency of Canada said Thursday it was launching radio ads to offer Canadians advice about how to prevent the spread of H1N1. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, said a vaccine campaign is next.

The choice to get vaccinated, while an individual one, should also be an easy one, he said.

"The value is not just for my own protection, but the fact that if I'm not sick, I cannot make someone else sick. Whereas if I do get sick, I may in fact infect one of my kids or a parent or a friend or someone else who then goes on to die," he said.

"For me, it's a fairly simple decision."