2017-2018 Flu Season

Thank you NBC NEWS & CDC for this insightful information. For the full article please click here.

It looks like the Flu Season has gotten a head start this year. Getting an annual flu vaccine is the first and best way to protect yourself and your family from the flu. Flu vaccination can reduce flu illnesses, doctors’ visits, and missed work and school due to flu, as well as prevent flu-related hospitalizations

This year’s flu season is off to a fast start and early indications suggest that it may be more severe than the previous season, NBC News reported.

Widespread flu activity is currently in four states where last year there were none at this time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Dr. William Schaffner, who is involved in the CDC’s flu surveillance network in Tennessee, has noticed cases of influenza picking up "dramatically" in the last week.

Even worse, it appears the dominant strain will be H3N2, which can produce more severe illness, said Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Thank you NBC NEWS & CDC for this insightful information. For the full article please click here.

Unfortunately, the flu vaccine available in the United States this year was only 10 percent effective in preventing illness from H3N2. However, while vaccinated people can still get sick, generally they get a milder and less dangerous form of the illness. Also, the vaccine protects against other flu strains.

What’s new this flu season?

A few things are new this season:

• The recommendation to not use the nasal spray flu vaccine (LAIV) was renewed for the 2017-2018 season. Only injectable flu shots are recommended for use again this season.
• Flu vaccines have been updated to better match circulating viruses (the influenza A(H1N1) component was updated).
• Pregnant women may receive any licensed, recommended, and age-appropriate flu vaccine.
• A quadrivalent recombinant flu vaccine (“Flublok Quadrivalent” RIV) is newly available this season. (Last season, only trivalent recombinant flu vaccine was available.)
• A quadrivalent inactivated flu vaccine, “Afluria Quadrivalent” IIV, was licensed last season after the annual recommendations were published.
• The age recommendation for “Flulaval Quadrivalent” has been changed from 3 years old and older to 6 months and older to be consistent with FDA-approved labeling.
• The trivalent formulation of Afluria is recommended for people 5 years and older (from 9 years and older) in order to match the Food and Drug Administration package insert.
• For the first time, a cell-grown H3N2 vaccine reference virus was used to produce the H3N2 component of the cell-based vaccine, Flucelvax. (The remaining Flucelvax vaccine components were manufactured using egg-grown reference viruses.) For more information, see the questions: “Why is it significant that a cell-grown vaccine reference virus (H3N2) was used to produce flu vaccine?” and “Is flu vaccine made using a cell-grown reference virus and cell-based technology more effective than vaccine made using an egg-grown reference virus and egg-based technology?”

For more information about the 2017-2018 Flu Season, please visit the CDC website by clicking here.

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