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Only 19 percent of high-risk outpatients who would benefit from antiviral treatment actually received an antiviral medication during the
2014–2015 flu season.
- CDC
In the recommendations for the 2015-2016 Northern Hemisphere influenza season for trivalent (three strain) vaccines released in February 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) changed two of the three strains used in the 2014-2015 vac- cines. WHO recommended strains are the same ones chosen for the 2015 Southern Hemisphere flu season.
WHO also recommended quadriva- lent (four strain) vaccines, which contain two influenza B viruses, add a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus to the strains recommended in triva- lent (three strain) vaccines. 1
U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) unanimously approved the WHO’s recommenda- tion for the H3N2 and H1N1 strains.2
CDC Reports
H3N2 was the predominant flu type this year in the U.S., yet 70 percent of the actual flu viruses circulating were different, or had “drifted,” from the flu strains contained in the 2014–2015 vaccines. Results of the unmatched strains included lower vaccine effectiveness (VE), and the
highest flu-associated hospitalization rate among people 65 and older since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking the rates in 2005. Young children, from infants to four years old, had the second highest hospitalization rate.
Given the severity of this 2014-2015 flu season, the CDC underscored the importance of administering antiviral medications for treatment—even if treatment is delayed—to people who are severely ill and people who are at high risk of serious flu complications, including people 65 and older and children younger than two years.
WHO recommends the following strains are included in vaccines for the 2015– 2016 Northern Hemisphere flu season:
» anA/California/7/2009(H1N1)pdm09- like virus;
» anA/Switzerland/9715293/2013 (H3N2)-like virus;
» andaB/Phuket/3073/2013-likevirus
WHO also recommends quadrivalent (four strain) vaccines add a B/Brisbane /60/2008-like virus to the strains in trivalent (three strain) vaccines.
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