The nasal influenza vaccine can be safely given to young children at the same time that they get the MMR and chickenpox vaccines, according to a new report in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Guidelines from the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practises recommend that healthy children receive more than 25 vaccine doses during the first two years of life.
This high number of doses means that vaccines are often administered together, and there is a theoretical chance that vaccines could interact and reduce the protectiveness of each.
In the new study, conducted by Dr. Terry Nolan of the University of Melbourne, Australia and colleagues, 1 245 children in the US and Australia, ages 12 to 15 months, were randomly assigned to one of three groups in which the nasal flu vaccine was given before, after, or along with MMR and varicella vaccines.
The researchers found that the immunity provided by the three vaccines, as their safety, remained unchanged no matter whether they were given sequentially or concurrently.
The study was funded by MedImmune, which markets the nasal flu vaccine as FluMist.