A new study, carried out in 46 Hutterite colonies in Western Canada, suggests that giving flu vaccines to children can act as a barrier for the entire community.

The findings of the study, lead by Dr. Mark Loeb, of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, are in direct support of the concept of "herd immunity", which means that vaccinated members of a community, act as a barrier against a disease, while the unvaccinated do not.

What this means is that, for the first time, the results of this study can do what scientists have not been able to do; making the "anti-vaccine" crowd realize that immunization is actually good for them, and not the other way round.

More than 900 children took part in the research, all aged from 3 to 15, from 46 Hutterite colonies in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. As a part of the study, some children received the flu vaccine, while the others got Hepatitis A vaccine.

The team of researchers found out the Hutterite kids who received the flu shot, had a 60% reduction in the incidence of flu for the whole community.

The findings have been published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.