Editorials

SAN JOSE — Those afraid of needles may breathe easier with news of an experimental flu vaccine that takes the form of a nasal spray. 

The vaccine called Flumist is undergoing final tests in children at Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California clinics and at clinics in Temple, Texas. 

Aviron Corp., the Mountain View-based company that will market the spray, hopes to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in time for next year’s flu season. 

Influenza typically affects 10 to 20 percent of the U.S. population, and causes around 20,000 deaths each year. The role flu shots play in stemming and preventing the spread of the illness has received heightened attention this year due to a delay in the availability of flu vaccine across the country. 

Flumist has been tested on about 10,000 people, most of them children, Aviron said. 

In trials, the vaccine was shown to protect against flu in 93 percent of children who received it. It also helped prevent ear infections with fever that plague many young children. 

In adults, Flumist was shown to protect against flu in 85 percent of adults who received it, compared with 71 percent of adults who received injected flu vaccine. Typical side effects include a runny nose or a sore throat. 

Researchers say that a nasal vaccine may provide stronger protection against the flu because the virus can be killed in the nasal passages before entering the bloodstream. 

In its current stage of development, however, the vaccine is hard to transport because it must remain frozen until use. Aviron is working on a liquid version of the vaccine that could be shipped around the world.