The results of a new study show that vaccinating children of five years and younger didn’t decrease in number for influenza related child hospitalization or doctor’s visits.

Dr. Robert Belshe, who is professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the Saint Louis University Medical Center, said “The finding is not surprising at all if we compare the poor match between the flu vaccine and circulating strains in the past two years.” It’s worth mentioning that Dr. Robert wasn’t involved in the study.

The results of another study that is going to be published in the October issue of Pediatrics show that in the US children flu related deaths are on increase and that’s why the flu shots have become quite important.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested in June 2006 that all children of 6 months and older must have received annual flu shots.

The new report has been published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine October issue.

In this study Dr. Peter G.Szilagyi and team examined the data on 414 children of five and younger age and who got flu during 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 flu seasons.

The researchers noted that among these children 245 had to visit hospitals or emergency departments, while 169 visited doctor’s clinic. Afterward the researchers compared the vaccination status of these kids with 5000 children from the same area who didn’t become the victim of the flu.