CDC Recommends Antiviral Drugs For At-Risk Patients : NPR
CDC Recommends Antiviral Drugs For At-Risk Patients : NPR.The flu is awful this year. I'm in the bathroom washing my child's hands all Lady Macbeth the second he gets home from school. In this interview Tom Freiden, Director of the CDC, explains plainly why the flu is so bad right now and why people who have gotten the flu shot are still getting sick. He also talks about antiviral use in flu patients.I'm concerned for public health and the future success of flu shot campaigns. The strain that is infecting people despite vaccination was chosen for the vaccine, but between it's selection and the beginning of our flu season it mutated. ARGH. This wasn't a failure on the part of the CDC but it will lose them good faith in a year where we already had our eyes set to roll at their very next press release. So now add to the giant list of reasons people won't get their flu shot "they messed it up last year." Which is bad for community immunity.Below, data for health districts reporting in VA (two weeks old). The red is the sub-type of flu the vaccine does not cover.
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemiology/flu/WklyPhysReport.pdfKnowledge cures ignorance so here is the back story of the flu vaccine and why this year was a one-off to convince you to please get your flu shot next year, too:
How are the viruses selected to make flu vaccine?
The influenza (flu) viruses selected for inclusion in the seasonal flu vaccines are updated each year based on which influenza virus strains are circulating, how they are spreading, and how well current vaccine strains protect against newly identified strains. Currently, 141 national influenza centers in 111 countries conduct year-round surveillance for influenza and study influenza disease trends. These laboratories also send influenza viruses to the five World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centers for Reference and Research on Influenza located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC); London, United Kingdom (National Institute for Medical Research); Melbourne, Australia (Victoria Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory); Tokyo, Japan (National Institute for Infectious Diseases); and Beijing, China (National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention) for additional analyses.
The influenza viruses in the seasonal flu vaccine are selected each year based on surveillance-based forecasts about what viruses are most likely to cause illness in the coming season. WHO recommends specific vaccine viruses for inclusion in influenza vaccines, but then each individual country makes their own decision for which strains should be included in influenza vaccines licensed in their country. In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determines which vaccine viruses will be used in U.S.—licensed vaccines.