Oregon Public Broadcasting

Researchers at a Seattle cancer center say the best way to control the H1N1 virus is through a vigorous vaccination program that targets children.

With the flu already popping up around the Northwest, they say the sooner the vaccinations start, the better. Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

The study done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center recommends 70-percent of people in the U.S. get the H1N1 vaccine.

Dr. Ira Longini says kids are most likely to get the flu and more likely than adults to transmit it to others.

Longini says a vaccination program should start at least a month before the next wave of the flu hits. The vaccine isn't expected until October. Longini says that isn't ideal.

Ira Longini: “It's still very important, though, to vaccinate people. We're going to have to deal with this vaccine and the virus itself probably for many years to come.”

Longini says vaccinations are the most cost effective way of controlling the flu. But he says anti-viral medicines and quarantining sick people also help slow the spread.

The Fred Hutchinson study appears this week in Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science.