Current Flu Vaccine May be No Good Anyway

[materia3]

San Francisco Chronicle, Sun 24 Oct 2004 [edited]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/24/FLU.TMP

As Americans scramble for scarce doses of flu vaccine in hopes of warding off the respiratory bug this winter [2004-2005], the wily influenza virus may have other plans. Through a natural process known as antigenic drift, a new strain of influenza that can diminish the effectiveness of today's vaccine is already emerging on the far side of the world. The emergent strain raising questions now is known as A/Wellington, named after the New Zealand city where it was 1st detected. "The flu season has been late this year [2004], and it seems some people who have been vaccinated have been hit by this changing strain," said New Zealand Health Ministry flu chief Dr. Lance Jennings.

rest of account is at above URL.

 

[Dymanic]

Hardly earth-shattering news. There's never any sure-fire way to know in advance how good a match this year's vaccine is going to be against this year's strain. "Current Flu Vaccine May be No Good Anyway" (with emphasis on May) is a reasonable default assumption -- just like every year -- but I don't see any reason why that makes a better headline than:

"...tests are showing there is less of a mismatch between the current flu vaccine and A/Wellington than there was last year between A/Panama and A/Fujian."

or:

"The predominant flu virus around the globe right now is one called A/Fujian, and the vaccine Americans are seeking today is a perfect match for it."

or, best of all:

"It's much too early,'' he said. "to predict what kind of year we are going to have.''

 

[Dr. Imago]

This happens every year. The vax generators always hedge their bets about which will be the predominate strain. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes not.

And, before Rouser can jump in, the benefit is worth the extremely minimal risk of the vaccine.

-TT