NOTE: Updated 2010-2011 Flu Vaccine Information is available at:
# 4359
Since it takes roughly six months to create, manufacture, test, and `fill and finish’ enough flu vaccine for the upcoming flu season scientists must decide now what flu strains they expect to dominate next fall.
Accordingly, each February and September the World Health Organization meets in a technical session to review the flu strains currently circulating around the world and to make recommendations for the makeup of the next season’s flu vaccine.
Manufacturers then go to work producing the upcoming season’s stockpile while scientists and doctors cross their fingers and hope they guessed right. As we saw last year with the sudden introduction of novel H1N1, a lot can happen during those six months.
Today the WHO has announced their recommendations for next fall’s flu shots for the Northern Hemisphere. As you might expect, they expect novel H1N1 to be a major component of the next flu season.
Here then is a summary of their recommendations followed by a link to the full report.
Recommended viruses for influenza vaccines for use in the 2010-2011 northern hemisphere influenza season
It is recommended that the following viruses be used for influenza vaccines in the 2010-2011 influenza season (northern hemisphere):
— an an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus;
— an an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus;*
— a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.
* A/Wisconsin/15/2009 is an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus and is a 2010 southern hemisphere vaccine virus.For more information- Recommended viruses for influenza vaccines for use in the 2010-2011 northern hemisphere influenza season - full report [pdf 56kb]
With large stockpiles of unused H1N1 vaccine (most of which has an expected shelf life of at least another 12 months), countries will have to decide how to order and dispense the vaccine in the fall.
Possibilities include:
- In some cases, nations with large stockpiles of `unfilled’ H1N1 antigen may be able to combine that surplus with the newly produced H3 and B antigens to produce a trivalent shot.
- Others nations may decide to go with two shots again, instead of one, and order a bivalent (H3/B) vaccine to go along with their existing H1N1 shots.
- Nations without a stockpile of novel H1N1 vaccine will need a new trivalent vaccine.
- And it is even possible that some nations will have go with a combination of the choices above.
All of which adds up to another complicated influenza vaccine manufacturing season ahead.
Related Post:
Influenza
- The Many Flavors Of ILI
- Canada Releases Tamiflu From National Emergency Stockpile
- CDC Statement On This Year’s Flu Activity
- ECDC Influenza Virus Characterization
- BMC: Exploring The `Age Shift’ Of Pandemic Mortality
- PLoS One: Influenza Viral Shedding & Asymptomatic Infections
- Influenza Virus Survival At Opposite Ends Of The Humidity Spectrum
- NIVW 2012
- Revisiting The Numbers Racket
- Of Pregnancy, Flu & Autism
- Study: Adverse Events Associated With Oseltamivir Outpatient Treatment
- MMWR: Evaluating RIDTs
- CIDRAP: The Need For `Game Changing’ Flu Vaccines
- Study: Influenza And Heart Attacks
- ECDC: Influenza Virus Characterization – Sept 2012
- Dozens Of Ways To Spell `I-L-I’
- Companion Animals & Reverse Zoonosis
- A WHO Flu Review
- NPM12: The Rehydration Solution
- NIAID Video: How Influenza Pandemics Occur
- IDSA: Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Preparedness
- CDC Updates Minnesota H1N2v Cases
- An Increasingly Complex Flu Field
- When Body Caught Flu Infected? flu incubation period
- HOW TO RECOGNIZE COMMON FLU FLU AND DANGEROUS to children
Vaccine
- Anticipating The Flu Season Down Under
- ACP Calls For Health Care Worker Immunizations
- Branswell On Flu Vaccine Matches
- Flu Vaccine Still Available, But Spot Shortages Exist
- Study: Self-Administered Vaccines In Adults
- Egypt: A Paltry Poultry Vaccine
- Lancet: Low Flu Vaccine Effectiveness
- Hong Kong: H5N1 Vaccine Recommended For Certain Lab Workers
- AAP Endorses SAGE Recommendations Keeping Thimerosal In Vaccines
- NIVW 2012
- Study Supports Safety Of Tdap Vaccine In Older Patients
- JAMA: Waning Pertussis Vaccine Effectiveness Over Time
- Revisiting The Numbers Racket
- Of Pregnancy, Flu & Autism
- Canada & Switzerland Clear Novartis Flu Vaccine For Use
- CMAJ On Mandatory Flu Shot For HCWs
- Novartis Fluad And Agriflu Vaccines Suspended In Canada
- The UK’s Whooping Cough Outbreak
- Peter Sandman On the CCIVI Vaccine Report
- CIDRAP: The Need For `Game Changing’ Flu Vaccines
- Rhode Island Adopts New Flu Vaccination Requirements For HCPs
- Vietnam Reports Progress On New Bird Flu Vaccine
- WHO: Southern Hemisphere 2013 Flu Vaccine Composition
- NPM12: Giving Preparedness A Shot In The Arm
- Yes, We Have No Pandemic . . .
WHO
- FluView, FluWatch, And WHO Flu Surveillance Reports
- WHO Coronavirus Update
- WHO: H5N1 Update
- WHO: World Malaria Report 2012
- Sudan Yellow Fever Update: WHO
- WHO: Background & Summary Of Coronavirus Cases
- WHO Coronavirus Update: 9 Confirmed Cases
- WHO Update On Ebola In Uganda
- WHO Corrects Coronavirus Statement
- Referral: CIDRAP News Summarizes The Coronavirus Story
- Branswell On Expanded Surveillance For The Coronavirus
- WHO Update On Marburg Outbreak In Uganda
- WHO Announces Additional Coronavirus Cases
- WHO Europe: Revising Pandemic Preparedness Plans
- Global Flu Surveillance Updates
- Peru: Alert For Bubonic Plague In Ascope Region
- WHO Update: Marburg Virus In Uganda
- WHO: Yellow Fever Outbreak In Sudan
- WHO Update On DRC Ebola Outbreak
- WHO Update on Marburg Virus In Uganda
- A WHO Flu Review
- EID Journal: Challenges To Defining TDR-TB
- WHO: Southern Hemisphere 2013 Flu Vaccine Composition
- Coronavirus: WHO Update & Genome Sequence
- Morning Coronavirus Roundup
Widget by [ Iptek-4u ]