H1N1 double-dose protocol in question.

Better one shot than two, right? Well, if this recent study is further proven, one dose of the H1N1 vaccine may be enough to protect infants and children instead of the recommended two doses. This is according to research undertaken by Australia’s University of Melbourne.

The University of Melbourne’s Dr. Terry Nolan is the study’s lead author. He and his colleagues assessed the effectiveness and safety of two doses of the influenza H1N1 vaccine in 370 healthy infants and children ages 6 months to less than age 9, living in Australia.

Current H1N1 protocol everywhere – from the US to Australia – recommends that infants and children age 9 years or younger receive two doses of H1N1 influenza vaccine at least 21 days apart, based on existing experience with seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines in this age group. But the double-dose regimen may not be necessary for H1Ni after all.

In the Melbourne study, children were randomized into groups that received a two-injection regimen 21 days apart in doses of either 15-micrograms or 30-micrograms of the vaccine. 

Nolan says, “our findings suggest that a single 15-microgram dose vaccine regimen may be effective and well tolerated in children, and may have positive implications for disease protection and reduced transmission of pandemic H1N1 in the wider population.”

These findings are published online ahead of print issue of the January 2010 edition of the Journal of American Medical Association.

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