Ontario to offer nasal flu vaccine for kids, despite study showing 'no protective benefit'

Ontario will continue to offer the nasal spray flu vaccine for children, despite a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) arguing that the spray offered "no protective benefit" based on data from the last three flu seasons.

The nasal spray, sometimes called the flu mist, was introduced in Ontario last year for children aged twoto 17 as a needle-free alternative to the traditional flu shot.

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After finding that the nasal spray's effectiveness clocked in at just threeper centin the 2015-2016 flu season compared to 63 per centfor the traditional flu shotthe CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted that the spray should not be used this year in the United States.

But Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said the province will continue to offer it, pointing to a study by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research that found flu mist "as effective as the injectable version."

"They have found a different result in the U.S., and we respect that, but we look to the National AdvisoryCommitteeon Immunization and the federal government, and their recommendation ... is that flu mist continue to be an option for vaccination for children," said Hoskins.

Explaining the CDC's data

Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr.David Williams, saidit's difficult to rely on data from a specific flu season since the strains of flu that are present change every year.

"Effectiveness in the community is difficult to measure in any one flu season, or even two or three flu seasons," he said.

Dr. Samira Mubareka, an infectious diseases physician at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, agrees with Williams, adding that effectiveness levels measured in the U.S. may not hold true for Canada.

"There are significant differences on a number of levels between Canada and the U.S., whether we're talking about systemic differences how vaccines are delivered and rolled out or in our population in general and our geographic distribution," she said.

Mubareka warned against making hasty changes to Canada's recommendations based on the CDC's findings.

"We wouldn't want to base those changes on data from a different population from just a single year."

Spray no longer 'preferential'

Though the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) maintains that the two vaccine options offer comparable protection from the flu, they have taken steps this year to dial down the strength of their recommendation for the nasal spray.

NACI wrote in a report on the coming flu season that "the current evidence does not support a recommendation for the preferential use of [nasal mist] in children and adolescents 2-17 years of age."

In 2011, NACI had said that the mist was preferential to the shot for children.

This year's report also said that more research is needed to "fill knowledge gaps" around the effectiveness of the spray.

Nasal spray a help to parents

The nasal spray vaccination can be a boon to parents whose kids are afraid of needles.

Toronto parent Shirley Moore said her six-year-old twins both received the nasal spraylast year.

"Last year they didn't get sick, so that was good for us, and it went so much more smoothly than it would have the year before when they got the needle," she said.

Despite the CDC study, Moore said she's considering signing her childrenup for the spray vaccination again.

"There have been Canadian studies that say differently than the CDC study, and that makes me feel better, and it makes me think, ok, I'll wait and see."

Williams saidhis priority is increasing the number of children being vaccinated in Ontario.

"Both[types of vaccination]are safe, both are equally effective in my mind. Getting one or the other is better than getting nothing," he said.