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4A Daily News – Tuesday, October 22, 2013 Vitality health & fitness Bacteria found in breast milk sold for less on Internet Flu shot: Yes or no? By Jessica Yadegaran Bay Area News Group Gregg Schlaman swears by his annual flu shot. For the past 20 years, Schlaman, a 51-year-old aerospace engineering specialist, has received the influenza vaccine in the comfort of his Palo Alto office, where a nurse administers it between coffee and meetings. "I have noticed that I don't get sick as often as I used to," Schlaman says. "I think it's the best thing you can do to protect yourself during the winter." To say John Styles disagrees is an understatement. "I've never gotten the flu shot, and I never will," says Styles, a 39-year-old Oakland computer programmer who says he gets a cold once or twice a year but is otherwise healthy. "I just think there's too much room for error by the pharmaceutical companies. And I prefer to avoid needles when I can." Why can't we agree on a seemingly simple health precaution? Because, like everything, pricking comes with pros and cons. Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that everyone over the age of 6 months get vaccinated against influenza, only 41 percent of adults and 56 percent of children actually receive the flu shot. Why? Opponents say the vaccine is not foolproof; they still get sick, and sometimes, within a day of receiving it. Plus, it hurts. Meanwhile, advocates, including experts, argue that even with mild side effects, the vaccine is a critical first step in protecting yourself, loved ones, and the larger population against the nasty disease, especially this year, since the CDC is offering for the first time a quadrivalent vaccine designed to protect against four different flu viruses: Two influenza A viruses (including H1N1) and two influenza B viruses. Trivalent vaccines will still be administered and are preferred for seniors and babies, the CDC says. The quadrivalent vaccine is recommended for healthy individuals ages 2 to 49. Despite the potentially broader protection, efficacy still varies, depending on how well scientists in the spring are able to identify the flu strains that will be circulating during the upcoming season, says Jeffrey Silvers, an infectious disease specialist with Sut- ter Health's Eden Medical Center in San Leandro. "Last year's match wasn't very good, and a lot of people got sick," he says. "But one year like that doesn't mean you shouldn't get the vaccine." Silvers says the optimal time to get the vaccine is late October or early November, since influenza typically hits the Bay Area in December or January. "Vaccine immunity wanes with time, so you don't want to get it too early," he says. Even when the government does find correct viral matches, each person responds differently to the vaccine, depending on his or her age, immune system and underlying medical conditions. As Silvers explains, efficacy might be as high as 80 percent in a healthy young adult, but plummets to 50 percent or less in older people or someone fighting cancer, he says. People over 65 are also more likely to face serious complications or even death as a result of the flu. "How do you protect your 85-year-old grandfather? You get vaccinated. His wife gets vaccinated. So does the caregiver," says Silvers, describing the concept of herd immunity. When contagious diseases are transmitted from individual to individual, chains of infection are likely to be disrupted when large numbers of a population are immune or less susceptible to the disease. His overall stance on the influenza vaccine? It's not perfect, but it does help. "Development of vaccines is a complex process," he says. "We measure response based on the body's ability to develop immunity toward the vaccine, but there is no perfect correlation between vaccine-induced immunity RANDAL S. ELLOWAY DDS IMPLANT DENTISTRY 2426 SO. 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Have you ever been embarrassed by a denture or a bridge? If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, call us today at (530) 527-6777 to schedule an evaluation appointment. We would be pleased to evaluate your oral health and discuss treatment options with you. and resistance to infection." Randy Bergen, a Walnut Creek pediatric infectious disease expert, agrees. "Even if it's only 30 percent effective, which some experts believe, when you look at the number of people we vaccinate, that has huge implications for the health of our community." Still, he says, the vaccine doesn't protect you from all the other wintertime viruses, including the common cold. "It's the safest and most effective way to protect yourself against the flu," he says. "But you still have to wash your hands constantly and stay home when you're sick." As for those flulike aches and pains you think you got as a result of the shot? Ironically, this is the first year that actually may not be your imagination. In previous years, the shot contained a dead strain of the virus, but this year's high-dose, quadrivalent vaccine, which is in limited supply and also available as a nasal spray, contains a live virus that could cause some symptoms, Silvers says. But they are not evidence of the flu and should dissipate within a few days. That's enough for Sylvia Solis to be a vaccine believer. The 29-year-old San Jose teacher's assistant spends her days "around a lot of germs" and has received a flu shot every year for a decade. "I might have a little pain in my arm or some mild aches, but I don't mind," Solis says. "People always tell me, 'You're so lucky you don't get sick,' but I think it's the flu shot." Sarah Sohm isn't so sure. It's not that Sohm, 28, is anti-vaccine. She just really hates getting shots. And, she doesn't see an immediate need to be vaccinated against influenza. "I don't have children that could get me sick, and I'm not around people I could get sick," she says. But, every year, around this time, when Sohm calls her grandparents in Palo Alto to set up their next lunch date, her grandmother, Gayle Pena, skips hello and instead declares this into the phone: "Let's get that flu shot." Last weekend, as they have for the past 10 years, they went to Safeway together and got their matching injections. "She knows I won't go on my own," Sohm says. "And she wants me to be healthy." • Standard dose trivalent shots that are manufactured using inactive virus grown in eggs. These are approved for people ages 6 months and older. There are different brands of this type of vaccine, and each is approved for different ages. However, there is a brand that is approved for children as young as 6 months old and up. • A standard dose trivalent shot containing virus grown in cell culture, which is approved for people 18 and older. • A standard dose trivalent shot that is egg-free, approved for people 18 through 49 years of age. • A high-dose trivalent shot, approved for people 65 and older. • A standard dose intradermal trivalent shot, which is injected into the skin instead of the muscle and uses a much smaller needle than the regular flu shot, approved for people 18 through 64 years of age. New, quadrivalent flu vaccine • This vaccine protects against two influenza A viruses (including H1N1) and two influenza B viruses. It contains a live virus and is in limited supply, so call your doctor or pharmacy to see if they're offering it this year. The following quadrivalent flu vaccines are available: • A standard dose quadrivalent shot • A standard dose quadrivalent nasal spray, approved for healthy people 2 through 49 years of age. Need a Physician? Red Bluff Businessman's Bible Study (RBBBS) Doctors who listen ... Doctors who care. A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE Call toll free 888.628.1948 www.redbluff.mercy.org Join us!! Learn how to Operate and Grow your Business using Christian Principles Learn to be a More Effective Christian and Businessman Network with other Christian Businessmen Non-Denominational Inaugural Meeting: Monday, October 21, 2013 7:15 - 8:00 a.m. No Cost FREE Coffee will be served. 331 Elm Street, Red Bluff RSVP 530-736-6775 A Retirement Community for the Active Senior Citizens By Lindsey Tanner AP Medical Writer Human breast milk is sold for babies on several online sites for a few dollars an ounce, but a new study says buyer beware: Testing showed it can contain potentially dangerous bacteria including salmonella. The warning comes from researchers who bought and tested 101 breast milk samples sold by women on one popular site. Three-fourths of the samples contained high amounts of bacteria that could potentially sicken babies, the researchers found. They did not identify the website. The results are "pretty scary," said Dr. Kenneth Boyer, pediatrics chief at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who was not involved in the study. "Just imagine if the donor happens to be a drug user. You don't know." The research published in medical literature cites several cases of infants getting sick from strangers' milk. Breast milk is also provided through milk banks, whose clients include hospitals. They also charge fees but screen donors and pasteurize donated milk to kill any germs. With Internet sites, "you have very few ways to know for sure what you are getting is really breast milk and that it's safe to feed your baby," said Sarah Keim, the lead author and a researcher atNationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "Because the consequences can be serious, it is not a good idea to obtain breast milk in this way." The advice echoes a 2010 recommendation from the federal Food and Drug Administration. "When human milk is obtained directly from individuals or through the Internet, the donor is unlikely to have been adequately screened for infectious disease or contamination risk," the FDA says. "In addition, it is not likely that the human milk has been collected, processed, tested or stored in a way that reduces possible safety risks to the baby." The researchers believe theirs is the first study to test the safety of Internet-sold milk, although several others have documented bacteria in mothers' own milk or in milk bank donations. Some bacteria may not be harmful, but salmonella is among germs that could pose a threat to infants, Boyer said. Sources for bacteria found in the study aren't known but could include donors' skin, breast pumps used to extract milk, or contamination from improper shipping methods, Keim said. The study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics. There are many milk-sharing sites online, including several that provide milk for free. Sellers or donors tend to be new mothers who produce more milk than their own babies can consume. Users include mothers who have difficulty breast-feeding and don't want to use formula and people with adopted infants. Breanna Clemons of Dickinson, N.D., is a donor who found a local woman who needed breast milk through one of the online sites where milk is offered free. "A lot of people are like, 'Ewww, it's weird,' but they haven't been in a situation where they didn't want their child to have formula," or couldn't produce enough milk, Clemons said. She said she shared her medical history with the recipient. Clemons is breast-feeding her 7-month-old and stores excess milk in her freezer. Every few weeks, she meets up with the recipient and gives her about 20 6-ounce bags. Clemons said the woman has a healthy 9-month-old who "loves my milk." Keim said it's unclear if milk from sites offering donated milk would have the same risks because donors might be different from those seeking money for their milk. And in a comparison, the researchers found more bacteria in breast milk purchased online than in 20 unpasteurized samples donated to a milk bank. Bekki Hill is a co-founder of Modern Milksharing, an online support group that offers advice on milk donation. She said there's a difference between milk sellers and donors; milk donors "don't stand to gain anything from donating so they have no reason to lie about their health." Hill, of Red Hook, N.Y., used a donor's milk for her first two children and plans to do so for her third, due in February, because she doesn't produce enough of her own. "Breast milk is obviously the preferred food" for babies, she said. www.redbluff.mercy.org redbluff.mercy.org EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY Tehama Estates provides the best living environment available to active seniors in Red Bluff, CA. 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