USA: Federal panel issues H1N1 vaccine guidelines - Over 65 not in priority group

. ATLANTA, Georgia / CNN News / Health / July 29, 2009 By Caleb Hellerman, CNN Senior Medical Producer A federal advisory committee issued sweeping guidelines Wednesday for a vaccination campaign against the pandemic swine flu strain, identifying more than half the U.S. population as targets for the first round of vaccinations. The priority groups include pregnant women; health care and emergency services personnel; children, adolescents and young adults up to age 24; household and caregiver contacts of children younger than six months; and healthy adults with certain medical conditions. The guidelines were approved in a near-unanimous vote by the 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. One person dissented on whether to include people ages 19 to 24 among those targeted. The vote does not trigger a decision to vaccinate against the disease, also called H1N1, but the federal government typically follows the committee's recommendations.... Read more..... The rate of laboratory-confirmed cases in Americans 65 and older is just 0.06 per 100,000, compared with 2.6 per 100,000 for the group with the highest infection rates, children 5 to 11. [rc] © 2009 Cable News Network