News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Experts are puzzled by a new study in which influenza vaccination seemed to provide little or no protection against flu in the 2010-11 season—and in which the only participants who seemed to benefit from the vaccine were those who hadn't been vaccinated the season before.

(CIDRAP News) – New European studies reported today in Eurosurveillance suggest that this year's influenza vaccine is providing good protection against influenza B viruses but only moderate protection against type A—findings more or less consistent with earlier results in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – Top federal health officials who testified on Capitol Hill today said the nation has much better influenza defenses today than it had 10 years ago, but one of them predicted that a "universal" flu vaccine is probably still 5 to 10 years away.

(CIDRAP News) – A detailed inventory of antibodies in the blood of people before and after flu vaccination found that the number of antibody types shrink with age, suggesting that vaccines may work differently in older people, a research team reported today.