JO CIAVAGLIA
But some also worry such medical studies could only confuse the public more, resulting in panic and distrust in vaccine programs, thereby risking lives.
"It's a concern because we don't want to send mixed messages. We need to be unified in our approach to protect people's health," said Dr. Rob Danoff, head of family practice residency programs at Aria Health Systems, which has a Bucks County campus in Falls.
"It's very confusing. We need to await the official statement of the CDC."
The Canadian study is under peer review, a process also used in the United States to ensure that data is unbiased and properly interpreted before publication in a scientific journal. ut its early findings prompted most Canadian provincial governments to suspend or limit their annual winter vaccine programs, according to Canadian news reports.
The study is co-authored by researchers from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion and Laval University in Quebec, according to reports.
Few people have seen the data, and some health experts are skeptical.
The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aren't recommending that annual flu vaccinations be postponed. Public health officials in the United States, Australia and other European countries say their data doesn't show such a link between the two flu vaccines.
Canadian government officials say the new study was only one factor in their decision to suspend seasonal flu shots for people under age 65; another reason is the belief H1N1 will be the dominate flu strain in the country this winter as it was in most Southern hemisphere during their winter.
Both Canada and the United States launched seasonal flu vaccine programs earlier than usual this year to prevent overwhelming health care providers with simultaneous demands for both H1N1 and annual flu vaccines.
For every study that finds a medical intervention works, there is likely one that will contradict it, said Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department.
Damsker pointed to another study recently published in the British Medical Journal that found the seasonal flu vaccine may offer some protection against H1N1 flu, though it shouldn't replace the new vaccine.
"This is why general medicine is difficult at times," he added. "You read one day that coffee causes Parkinson's disease and the next day a study says it prevents Parkinson's disease."
People should not make decisions based on a single study without thoroughly investigating other available research and speaking with medical professionals, Damsker warned.
"In Bucks County we've been preaching the same thing for the last five months. We're not trying to be led astray by one study here and there," he added. "It concerns me that every time a story comes out, people don't get all the information and make a quick decision based on the CNN ticker."
Aria's Danoff also says he will continue to recommend patients get the seasonal flu vaccine for now.
People who have already gotten their annual flu shot shouldn't worry about swine flu, he added. "For most it's a mild virus," he added. "I would not be alarmed."
The 2009 H1N1 virus is circulating and experts anticipate that 40 percent to 50 percent of the U.S. population will be infected, he noted.
What Danoff does worry about, though, is that conflicting data involving the flu vaccines could result in falling public confidence in the medical community.
"They're going to say, who can we believe?"
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