Federal health officials are scrambling to spread the word that this season’s flu shot will be much more effective than last year’s.
Last season’s shot was only 18 percent effective against the most prevalent strain of influenza. Health experts say that the shot should be effective for the upcoming season and that everybody should get protection.
“This year, all signs point to there being a very good match between all the vaccine components and the virus strains we expect to circulate,” said Andrew Pekosz, associate professor at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. But Pekosz did say that there are no guarantees the shot will be totally effective.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2574118/
“Laboratory data so far indicates that most circulating viruses are like the viruses used for developing the 15-2016 vaccines,” added Dan Jernigan, influenza division director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last season had the most hospitalizations of seniors age 65 years and older in the U.S. since record-keeping began in 2005, according to the CDC. Last season, an estimated 313 seniors per 100,000 were hospitalized due to the flu.
The problems with last season’s vaccine shed light on deficiencies with how the flu shot is created.
“There is a time constraint that we need to make decisions around the beginning of March so vaccine companies can begin [the] production process to immunize in September,” Pekosz told the Washington Examiner.
The World Health Organization picks what it believes will be the most dominant strains of influenza during the flu season that stretches from October-March.
Drug manufacturers then make the vaccine by growing antibodies in chicken eggs. The manufacturer injects the virus into the eggs and lets it incubate for several days.
Manufacturers then harvest the virus-containing fluid from the eggs, and that is what is used to make the vaccine, according to the CDC.
About two flu seasons ago, health experts say a new strain started to emerge called A H3N2. However, it emerged after the vaccine choices were made, thus leading to the ineffectiveness last season, Pekosz said.
He added there are other, faster methods for making the vaccine. One such type of vaccine is called Flublok, which doesn’t grow the vaccine in eggs.
However, Flublok has a shorter shelf life than the traditional vaccine, the CDC said.
Despite the troubles, the agency recommends that everyone get the flu shot now so they are prepared for the flu season. Even healthy people who have never had the flu before are at risk.
“Getting the flu vaccine is thousands of times better than getting the flu,” Pekosz said.
He said healthy people shouldn’t just get the shot to protect themselves from the flu.
Getting the vaccine can “reduce the number of susceptible people in a population, making the virus harder to circulate,” he said.
By having more people protected from the flu, it lowers the chances of the virus spreading to people who can’t get immunized or respond poorly to the vaccine, like the elderly, Pekosz said.
