Influenza Vaccines

Mar 6, 2012

Mar 5, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday approved the first quadrivalent influenza vaccine, an inhaled live attenuated influenza vaccine developed by MedImmune and modeled after its FluMist product.

The vaccine includes a second influenza B strain, which is designed to broaden protection against circulating strains. MedImmune plans to have the quadrivalent vaccine ready for the 2013-14 flu season.

(CIDRAP News) – A study published this week adds another to a short list of recent investigations suggesting that standard influenza vaccines yield only modest reductions in the risk of hospitalization or death in elderly people.

(CIDRAP News) – An advisory group to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today selected two new strains for the 2012-13 seasonal flu vaccine, based on a recent recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – A recent set of articles in Vaccine has confirmed previous preliminary reports that young children who received influenza shots in the 2010-11 flu season had a slightly increased risk of a febrile seizure after vaccination, especially if they received a new pneumococcal vaccine at the same time.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today recommended changing two of the three strains in next season's influenza vaccine for the Northern Hemisphere, ending a couple of years of stability in the vaccine's makeup.

The WHO's flu experts called for changing the A/H3N2 and B components of the vaccine but continuing to use a strain of the pandemic 2009 virus for the A/H1N1 component.

Feb 22, 2012

Feb 22, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – An advisory group to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today approved a set of voluntary measures designed to boost flu vaccination in healthcare workers.