Should a person with a weakened immune system be around a toddler or other person who received swine flu nasal mist?

Answer 1

It depends somewhat on the cause and severity of the immune system compromise. In some situations, the recommendation is to wait for a week after the vaccination before being in close contact with some people who are immunocompromised. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information on the use of the intranasal live attenuated (weakened) vaccines includes the following excerpts:

In clinical studies, transmission of vaccine viruses to close contacts occurred only rarely. The current estimated risk of getting infected with vaccine virus after close contact with a person vaccinated with the nasal-spray flu vaccine is low (0.6%-2.4%). Because the viruses are weakened, infection is unlikely to result in influenza illness symptoms since the vaccine viruses have not been shown change into typical or naturally occurring influenza viruses.

People who are in contact with others with severely weakened immune systems when they are being cared for in a protective environment (for example, people with hematopoietic stem cell transplants), should not get the nasal spray vaccine, including the 2009 H1N1 nasal spray vaccine if they will come into contact with the severely immunocompromised person within 7 days of vaccination. People who have contact with others with lesser degrees of immunosuppression (for example, people with Diabetes, people with Asthma taking corticosteroids, or people infected with HIV) can get the nasal spray vaccine. The full information at the CDC website about vaccines is available at the link provided in the related links section below.