Choosing strains for flu vaccine an inexact science with potentially deadly consequences

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.livewellnebraska.com/health/choosing-strains-for-flu-vaccine-an-inexact-science-with-potentially/article_7e8ac7fa-9847-11e4-87e8-efdb8425d3a7.html

Posted: Saturday, January 10, 2015 1:00 am
By Brady Dennis / The Washington Post.

In early March, Robert Daum and other infectious-disease experts from around the country will gather in a Silver Spring, Maryland, hotel to choose the influenza strains that vaccine makers should target for next year's flu season.

It's an annual guessing game of sorts, one backed by data but also plagued with uncertainty. And when the guesses don't exactly match the reality, as happened this past year, it can mean a dismal and deadly flu season.

"We'll do the best we can," said Daum, a Chicago doctor who heads the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee that makes the recommendations. But "the virus is smarter than we are at this point. I don't know of any disease that plagues us more. It's very, very frustrating and a very inexact science. . . . We do it with varying luck, and I think the luck is mostly the virus's whim."

As it does each year, the group will pore over surveillance information from around the globe, hear presentations from government researchers and weigh recommendations from the World Health Organization. The experts will cast their votes for the four specific flu strains — two each from the "A" and "B" types of the virus — that manufacturers should focus on in making the coming season's vaccine. Then, they will wait and hope.

FULL story at link.



Charles Krupa / The Associated Press
In this 2013 photo, 4-year-old Gabriella Diaz sits as registered nurse Charlene Luxcin, right, administers a flu shot at the Whittier Street Health Center in Boston, Mass.

[RKP5637]

1. Thanks for posting this. IMO having the vaccine is excellent, but it's always difficult to

forecast the future with a morphing virus. I'm amazed they do as well as they do.

[Control-Z]

2. The miraculous things

we take for granted.