November 3
What to look out for in 2017 flu vaccine season | Southern hemisphere flu vaccine season
Recommended composition of influenza vaccines for use in the 2017 southern hemisphere influenza season.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended in its recent report (dated 29 September 2016) that influenza vaccines for use in the 2017 southern hemisphere influenza season contain the following influenza vaccine viruses:
– an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
– an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus
– a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus (from the influenza B/Victoria lineage vaccine virus).
In addition, WHO has recommended that quadrivalent influenza vaccines containing two influenza B viruses, contain all of the above three viruses, and, a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (from the influenza B/Yamagata lineage vaccine virus).
Among circulating influenza B viruses, there are two distinct lineages. Quadrivalent influenza vaccines contain both a B/Victoria lineage vaccine virus, and, a B/Yamagata lineage vaccine virus.
The influenza vaccine viruses recommended for the 2017 southern hemisphere influenza season are different from those used for the 2016 southern hemisphere influenza season, and also, from those influenza vaccine viruses recommended by WHO for the northern hemisphere 2016-17 influenza season.
The influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine virus recommended for the 2017 southern hemisphere influenza season has been updated compared with the viruses recommended for the 2016 southern hemisphere and those recommended for the northern hemisphere 2016-17 influenza seasons.
The WHO makes influenza vaccine strain recommendations in late September each year for the following influenza vaccine season in the southern hemisphere.
The vast majority of influenza vaccines produced globally use egg-based manufacturing processes. These manufacturing processes often require 6 to 8 months in order to approve, and produce, the hundreds of millions of influenza vaccine doses available for the southern hemisphere influenza season each year.
For further detail, you can click on the link to the WHO report (dated 29 September 2016) that is available from: http://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2017_south/en/
