Adenoviruses flourish year-round, nursing homes at risk
by Michael Hedges, AARP Bulletin, March 2018
Bugs known as adenoviruses can cause symptoms similar to influenza: fever, headache, body aches and breathing problems.
A virus that mimics the symptoms of the flu and may be just as dangerous, especially to older people, is being misdiagnosed and underreported.
The bugs are adenoviruses, and an outbreak can cause symptoms similar to influenza: fever, headache, body aches and breathing problems. Unlike the flu, adenoviruses aren’t seasonal. They thrive in places where people are close together, such as long-term care facilities, says a report in Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Many respiratory infections transmit easily in this kind of environment and can take a toll,” said the report’s lead author, Adriana Kajon of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, N.M.
In 2006, three people at a long-term care facility in Boston died from an adenovirus. But the CDC says that for people with healthy immune systems, the viruses aren’t usually dangerous. A vaccine has been licensed for military use, but it isn’t available to civilians. Kajon said it should be more widely available. “This is a vaccine-preventable disease.”
That last sentence just "fries" me. Why is the vaccine not available to all?
from CDC: " A vaccine against adenovirus types 4 and 7 was given to U.S. military recruits from 1971 to 1999, but the manufacturer stopped producing the vaccine in 1999. A new live, oral vaccine against adenovirus types 4 and 7 was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2011 for U.S. military personnel 17 through 50 years old. The vaccine is recommended by the U.S. Department of Defense for military recruits entering basic training in order to prevent acute respiratory disease. For more information about the vaccine, see: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/adenovirus.html ref: https://www.cdc.gov/adenovirus/hcp/prevention-treatment.html"
That being the case, I shall not pursue a live vaccine.