Nasal mist flu vaccine approved for use

A flu vaccine that is the first to be delivered by a squirt up the nose instead of a needle in the arm has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for healthy people aged from 5 to 49.

The vaccine, called FluMist, was approved by the administration even though it was given only a tentative endorsement by an advisory panel last December. The panel said the drug would not be appropriate for people who most needed vaccine protection from influenza: toddlers, the elderly and people with asthma or other chronic diseases.

For children aged from 5 to 8, the approval requires two doses of FluMist six weeks apart. Patients aged 9 to 49 need only one dose, the agency says.

The safety and effectiveness of FluMist has not been proven for people 50 and over. The FDA encouraged those patients to get the injected flu vaccine.

FluMist was not approved for children under 5 because researchers found that young children treated with the nasal mist vaccine had a higher rate of asthma attacks and wheezing within 42 days of the vaccination than children who received a placebo.