CDC Preparing for 2012-2013 Influenza Season

Fri, 7/27/12 - 10:28am
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CDC

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meets regularly to discuss and update vaccination recommendations. The ACIP met in June to discuss recommendations, and at this time, no substantive changes to existing recommendations are under consideration by the ACIP.

According to a report by the FDA, FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met in February 2012, to select the influenza viruses for the composition of the influenza vaccine for the 2012-2013 U.S. influenza season. During this meeting, the advisory committee reviewed and evaluated the surveillance data related to epidemiology and antigenic characteristics of recent influenza isolates, serological responses to 2011-2012 vaccines, and the availability of candidate strains and reagents.

The committee recommended that the trivalent formulation influenza vaccines for the U.S. 2012-2013 influenza season contain the following:

an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus;
an A/Victoria /361/2011 (H3N2)-like virus;
a B/Wisconsin /1/2010-like virus.

The committee also recommended the following additional B strain for inclusion with the three strains included in the trivalent formulation for quadrivalent formulation influenza vaccines:

a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus

A quadrivalent influenza vaccine will not be available for the 2012-2013 influenza season.

There are two types of vaccines: the "flu shot", which contains the inactivated virus, and the nasal-spray flu vaccine, which contains live but weakened flu viruses. There are three kinds of flu shots: a regular shot approved for everyone aged 6 months and older; a high-dose shot approved for people 65 years and older; and an intradermal flu shot approved for people aged 18 to 64 years. The nasal-spray vaccine is approved for use in healthy individuals aged 2 to 49 years who are not pregnant.

More information about what to expect during the upcoming flu season can be found here: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2012-2013.htm

You can download updated hand-outs of the live and inactivated influenza vaccine for 2012-2013 from the CDC website here: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/default.htm#flu.

An immunization schedule for adults can be downloaded from the CDC here: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/easy-to-read/adult.html