FDA: Tainted eggs won't endanger flu shots

As if vaccine makers didn't have enough trouble pushing people to get annual flu shots. Now, in the wake of the big recall of eggs contaminated with salmonella, some consumers worry that they could get salmonella from eggs used in vaccine manufacturing.

The short answer: they won't. That's according to the FDA and to vaccine makers, both of which say that the eggs used for vaccine production come from different sources from those distributed in grocery stores; those eggs are tested for pathogens; and the vaccine-making process includes steps that would kill off salmonella and other bacteria.

"The companies that supply our eggs are exclusive to us and follow much higher levels of biosecurity than companies that supply table eggs," Donna Cary, a spokeswoman for Sanofi-Aventis, told the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. "The network of farms which supply our eggs are inspected by us and continuously meet rigid guidelines under which the chickens [and] eggs are monitored for any illness." FDA affirmed flu-vax safety, too, saying that the recall won't affect flu-shot "production, safety or availability." Enough said.

- read the Health Blog post

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